Indian Railways suspends train operations on Pamban Bridge till December 31

The Southern Railway Madurai Division has banned the movement of trains at Pamban Bridge and issued a red alert for completing the work and testing the bridge for safety, reports ANI.

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Southern Railway's Madurai Division has notified that train traffic on Pamban Bridge has been banned until 31 December. The railway administration has stated that after the work is finished, the tests will be conducted by the railway engineers, and only then will the trains be permitted to pass the bridge. According to toe sources, the repair work began on December 23. 

The Pamban railway bridge connects the Rameswaram island area with the Mandapam mainland. The Southern Railway Madurai Division has banned the movement of trains at Pamban Bridge and issued a red alert. 

Due to this, passenger trains from Madurai and Trichy were halted at Ramanathapuram along with the express trains from Chennai, were halted at Mandapam. Trains are not allowed to depart from Rameswaram, as per the sources. In this situation, the trains departing from Rameswaram are being operated from Mandapam. 

Meanwhile, the construction of the new vertical lift Pamban railway bridge is going in full swing. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared a video showing the funtioning of the railway bridge through an animated video.

The Pamban bridge's estimated cost was Rs 279.6 crore, but it ended up costing around Rs 540 crore. The bridge's construction began in  February 2020 and is ongoing around the clock from the Rameshwaram end.

The 72 m-long Vertical lift span is one of the new Pamban Bridge's unique characteristics. This enables the span to be raised 17 metres to accommodate ships. For a double track, the vertical lift span will be constructed. The bridge will traverse the water on 100 separate occasions, with 99 spans of 18.3 metres and one span of 72.5 metres. Additionally, it will be 3 m higher than the current bridge.

(With ANI inputs)