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Enlargement Of The Panama Canal Capacity By Dr. AB Thapa
Very recently a referendum was held on enlargement of the Panama Canal capacity. The overwhelming majority of the people of Panama had voted for the enlargement of the Panama Canal capacity. After the implementation of the enlargement program the capacity of the Panama Canal is expected to be doubled.
Nepal and India had few years back signed an agreement to conduct detailed feasibility study of a navigation canal connecting Nepal with the seaport. Hence information about navigation canal is of great interest to our country.
Past History
Panama Canal provides a direct passage to sea going vessels to enter into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic side and vice versa without taking a hazardous circuitous route passing through the southernmost tip of the South America . Thus the Panama Canal handling a large volume of the world shipping by enabling the vessels to avoid traveling around the South America reduces the voyage by thousands of kilometers and many days. It is said that as early as the 16th century, Europeans had dreamed of building a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama . Spain had recognized the advantages of a canal across the Central American isthmus. Spanish kings had even considered using such canal to carry treasure extorted from their South American colonies back to Spain . The Inca Empire, which was highly developed and very rich, had stretched out from north to south over a distance of about 4000 km on the western coast of the South America . Spain had ruthlessly conquered this vast empire in 1532 and plundered it of its vast wealth. However, no attempt was made to construct such canal. Panama Canal project became possible only in the 19th century, when heavy machineries became available to construct such canal. Originally , two routes came to be considered, one through Panama and the other through Nicaragua . Impetus for selecting the route through Panama increased with the construction by the United States of the Panama Railroad in the mid-19th century, which closely followed the eventual route of the canal. Layout of the Canal The Panama Canal consists of artificially created lakes, channels, and a series of locks, or water-filled chambers, that raise and lower ships through the mountainous terrain of central Panama . There are three separate canal locks, as well as other artificial waterways. The canal spans a total distance of 64 km from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean through the Isthmus of Panama . Because the Isthmus of Panama extends east-west, a ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the canal actually travels from northwest to southeast. The Panama Canal was built by the United States from 1904 to 1914. The Panama Canal posed major engineering challenges, such as damming a major river and digging a channel through a mountain ridge. It was the largest and the most complex project of this kind ever undertaken at that time, employing tens of thousands of workers. The canal consists of dredged approaches and three sets of locks at each end; Gatún Lake , one of the largest artificially created bodies of water in the world; and the excavated portion of the crossing, called Gaillard Cut . At Gatún, on the Atlantic side, the locks form continuous steps; on the Pacific side, a small lake (Miraflores) separates the middle and upper locks. Travel from Atlantic to Pacific To travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a ship enters Limón Bay from the north and anchors behind a breakwater to await scheduling of its passage. When ready, the canal authorities send out a canal pilot to take the vessel through the locks. The canal employs highly trained and experienced pilots to handle the complex job of steering ships through the waterway. As soon as the pilot takes over, the ship is under canal jurisdiction. Very large or hard-to-maneuver ships may require two or more pilots and assistance from tugboats. The ship travels south-southeast about 11 km and enters the first lock at Gatún. Line handlers at the lock attach steel mooring cables that are controlled by powerful electric locomotives, called mules. The mules guide the ship through the locks and steady it while the chambers are filled with water. In three steps the ship is raised to the level of Gatún Lake , 26 m above the sea. It travels through the lake and Gaillard Cut , the narrowest section of the canal. It is then lowered through a lock to Miraflores Lake , and passes through two more locks before reaching the Pacific Ocean Size of Locks The canal's 12 locks (3 sets of double locks at each end) have the same dimensions: 33.5 m wide by 305 m long. The gates at each end are 2.1 m thick. Water enters and leaves each lock through a system of main culverts or pipes, which connect to 100 holes in the floor of each chamber. For each ship traveling through the canal, 197 thousand cubic meters of fresh water are used, fed by gravity flow from Gatún Lake . Smaller ships often go through the locks together to conserve water. The ship drops the mooring lines at the top of the Gatún locks and proceeds under its own power for 37 km through the lake, following the former channel of the Chagres River . Gatún Dam, built adjoining the locks, flooded the river basin and formed the lake, which covers 430 sq km. The flooding created a number of islands, as the water covered all but the tops of hills. The waterway gradually narrows until the river turns to the east at Gamboa, flowing under a bridge of the Panama Railroad. South from Gamboa, the canal follows a channel dug through the mountains, which was the most difficult part of the construction project. Called Gaillard Cut , this section measures 14 km and traverses the Continental Divide, a ridge made of rock and shale. Numerous landslides occurred both during and after construction, requiring frequent dredging to keep the canal open. The channel through the cut is 150 m wide, which is the narrowest part of the canal. Originally only 91.5 m the cut was widened in phases beginning in the 1930s to allow two-way traffic. In the 1990s it was further enlarged to accommodate larger ships. The ship slows at the southern end of Gaillard Cut and enters Pedro Miguel locks. Again, cables and mules guide and steady the ship before it is lowered 9.4 m to Miraflores Lake . The cables are released and the ship crosses the lake, which is 2.1 km long and lies 16 m above sea level. The ship then enters the last two locks, also named Miraflores, and is lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean . The final stretch of the canal carries the ship to the harbour of Balboa , where the canal pilot leaves the vessel. The ship sails into the Bay of Panama , an arm of the Pacific Ocean . Northbound ships anchor in the Bay of Panama while waiting for their turn to travel through the canal to the Atlantic . The entire trip through the canal takes between 8 and 10 hours plus waiting time. The canal operates 24 hours a day year-round. Traffic Volume Very large volume of the world's ships, cargo, and passengers travel every year through the Panama Canal . In 1996 more than 15,000 ships made the crossing. From 1985 to 1995 the number of ships passing through the canal and their tonnage had substantially increased. About 14,000 ships, 400,000 crew members, and 300,000 passengers traveled through the canal in 1995. A wide variety of general cargo vessels and specialized ships pass through the canal. The most common are bulk carriers for ore, grain, and liquids; automobile carriers; container ships; refrigerated ships; tankers; liquid-gas carriers; and passenger liners. Many naval vessels, fishing boats, barges, dredges, floating drydocks, and ocean-going tugs also use the canal. The principal commodities shipped through the canal in 1993 were canned and refrigerated foods, chemicals, coal and coke, grains, lumber and wood products, machinery and equipment (including automobiles), iron and steel products, minerals, ores and metals, agricultural commodities, and petroleum and by-products. The single largest commodity was grain, mostly being shipped from the U.S. Gulf Coast region to Asia . Another important group was automobiles: About half of the cars shipped from Asia to the United States went through the canal in the mid-1990s. The size of ships using the Panama Canal has steadily increased. About 27 percent of the vessels that use the canal are built to the maximum dimensions that can pass through it (a category called "Panamax"). This has prompted further widening of Gaillard Cut , so that the larger Panamax vessels may transit safely. However, some of the world's commercial and military ships are too large for the canal. Since the 1940s, new U.S. battleships and aircraft carriers have been built exceeding the canal's dimensions; so have some petroleum supertankers, huge container ships, and ore carriers. Despite this trend, planners anticipate steadily increasing demand for use of the canal for the next 20 years. The Panama Canal was built in part for military reasons, to give the U.S. Navy rapid access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force bases were built in the canal zone to defend the vital channel. However, since World War II the canal has been considered vulnerable to attack. A single bomb or a scuttled ship could disrupt canal traffic for a long period, and the jungles along the canal could be used by guerrilla forces. Therefore, the canal was considered less valuable as a military asset. The nearby bases, while continuing to guard the canal, became a center for U.S. military operations throughout Central America and the Caribbean . The headquarters for the U.S. military's Southern Command was relocated from bases in Panama to Florida in 1997. All U.S. military bases in Panama were closed before the end of 1999. Canal Administration The canal is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, a public Panamanian corporation. Before Panama took control of the canal in 1999, the canal was managed by the Panama Canal Commission, a U.S. government agency under the Department of Defense. The commission was established in 1979 to operate the canal during the 20-year transition from U.S. to Panamanian control, and it gave Panamanians a role in governing the canal for the first time. The commission was supervised by a nine-member board composed of five U.S. citizens and four Panamanians. After 1990 the canal's administrator was a Panamanian. The commission provided Panamanian employees with specialized training, and Panamanians formed more than 90 percent of the canal's workforce by 1996. Until 1979 the canal and adjoining lands had been run solely by the U.S. government as if they were U.S. territory. (Dr. Thapa writes on water resources)
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