The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, aimed at deepening the waters in Palk Straits, is a 'viable' one but will not be useful for the navigation of the big ships, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Suresh Mehta said in Chennai on Tuesday.

"It is a viable project. But, on completion, it will be useful only for small ships but not to those big ships navigating on international routes," Mehta told the media on the sidelines of a meeting in Chennai on Monday night.

Asked to elaborate, the admiral said, "This is Tamil Nadu. And it is a sensitive issue," and declined to eloborate.

He was interacting with the audience of the Fifth T S Narayanaswamy Memorial Lecture, where he spoke on 'Oceanic Influence on India's Development in the next Decade.'

SSCP was embroiled in controversy after the Bharatiya Janata Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and other parties objected to the dredging of Ram Sethu, which formed part of the project.

The Supreme Court also stayed the dredging work on Ram Sethu.