Rail services on the 2.07-km Pamban Rail link connecting the Indian mainland to Rameshwaram island is likely to resume in two months. Operations on the link have been suspended for nearly a year to replace the country’s first vertical lift sea bridge in the middle of the rail link, which had corroded.

Anil Kumar Khandelwal, Member Infrastructure, Railway Board, on Friday inspected the redevelopment at Rameswaram Station and the progress on the new bridge, according to Southern Railway.

For the Railways, it is a prestigious project in the Bay of Bengal. Like the old cantilever bridge, the new one built at a cost of around ₹540 crore, is also an architectural marvel, facilitating the movement of ships across the railway bridge. The navigational span can be lifted up to a height of 17 m using an electro-mechanical system, unlike manual operations in the old one.

Work on the new bridge constructed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd started in February 2020. It will have 100 spans across the sea and will be 3 m higher than the existing bridge.

The old ‘great’ Pamban cantilever bridge was commissioned in 1914 and stood for over a century, bridging peninsular India and the Gulf of Mannar. The navigational span, known as the Scherzer rolling lift span, was named after the railroad engineer who invented it.

The bridge was originally built for Metre Gauge trains and subsequently strengthened to Broad Gauge standard in 2006-07. The Scherzer rolling span expands and allows cruisers and ships to pass through. It also transports pilgrims visiting Ramanathaswamy Temple.

E Sreedharan, the metro man of India, is synonymous with the Pamban rail bridge, which was devastated by a cyclone on December 23, 1964. However, in just 46 days, he and his team achieved the near-impossible task of restoring the bridge to fully operational state.

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