PM Modi inaugurates new Pamban Railway sea bridge, flags off first train on it

Modi also flagged off a new train – Rameshwaram-Tambaram Express – that will run between Chennai and Rameshwaram daily using the new bridge.

One of the most ambitious projects of Indian Railways, the new Pamban Bridge is 2.08 km long, built parallel to the existing old bridge. It has 100 spans across the sea, 99 of which are 18.3 metres in length and the remaining (the main span) is 72.5 metres, which can be lifted up to 17 metres to allow the passing of ships.

The construction of the new bridge was conceived to address the limitations of the old bridge, which was India’s first sea bridge and served over a century, and accommodate the growing traffic volume.

In 1911, the flourishing trade between India and Sri Lanka through two ports – Dhanushkodi (India), and Talaimannar (Sri Lanka) prompted British engineers to embark on an ambitious project to connect the mainland to Rameswaram. This resulted in the opening of the Scherzer Span Pamban Bridge in 1914. The bridge was a cantilever structure with a scherzer rolling lift span, allowing the ships to pass underneath.