Indian Railways which began the construction work on the new 2.05 km Pamban railway bridge in Mandapam, which will connect Rameswaram to the mainland in Tamil Nadu will be operational from March next year.
The new bridge will help the railways to operate trains at higher speeds, carry more weight and increase the volume of traffic between Pamban and Rameswaram.
The existing Pamban Rail Bridge, which connects Rameswaram to mainland India, is 105 years old.
Here are the new features of the Pamban sea bridge of Indian Railways:
Railways are building the country’s first vertical-lift bridge connecting Rameswaram in the Arabian Sea to mainland India that will allow ships and steamers to pass through without any hindrance.
The more than two-kilometre-long bridge, which is likely to cost 2250 crore, will have a 63-metre stretch that will lift up while remaining parallel to the deck to allow access to the ships.
While the current bridge has the ‘Scherzer’ rolling lift technology in which the bridge opens up horizontally, to let ships pass through, in the new one, a 63-metre section will lift vertically upwards remaining parallel to the deck. It will be done using sensors at each end.
The new bridge will have 100 spans of 18.3m and one navigational span of 63m
It will be three-metre higher than the existing bridge with navigational air clearance of 22 metres above sea level. Because of the vertical lift, the full horizontal width of 63m will be available for navigation.
The substructure of the bridge will be built for a double line and the navigational span will also have provision for the double line.
The entire bridge including navigational span will be designed keeping in mind the railways’ plan of electrification.
“In comparison to existing manual operation and control, the new bridge will have electro-mechanical controlled systems which will be interlocked with train control systems.
