As India looks to connect with Sri Lanka through a combination of a sea-bridge and underwater tunnel across Palk Strait, Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways, recalled a recent meeting with a Sri Lankan minister to discuss a possible blueprint. As Gadkari laid out his plan, the Sri Lankan minister began pulling his leg: “It was Hanuman who first built a bridge to Sri Lanka. Now you come to build roads in Sri Lanka,” he said. In the epic Ramayana, Lord Ram’s vanar sena (monkey army) built a stone bridge across the ocean to reach Lanka and rescue Sita from the clutches of Ravan.
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