A D Taylor, a commander in the Indian Navy, was the first in 1860 to propose a channel allowing ships to move between the eastern and the western coast without rounding Sri Lanka. The alignment he proposed involved cutting a canal though land in many areas, unlike the current alignment which is entirely in the open seas. Between 1860 and 1922, eight more proposals were made for cutting a channel across the narrow strip of land to connect the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay.