Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, has tweeted an animated video of Pamban Bridge which will soon connect Rameswaram, a Municipality in Tamil Nadu, with the rest of India.
The 26-second video shows how the bridge will function when its work is complete and it will be ready for operations. The small clip tweeted on Wednesday morning, has garnered nearly 300K views and 14K plus likes on Twitter.
Interestingly, Pamban Bridge is India’s first vertical lift railway sea bridge. It is near completion.
Presently, 84 per cent of the work is completed and track laying work is going on. Fabrication of Vertical Lift Span girder is nearing completion, informed Ministry of Railways recently and added that “assembling a platform for the vertical lift span on the Rameswaram end of the bridge is getting ready.”
It is parallel to the existing well-known Pamban Bridge (at a 27.35m distance) on the northern side of the Pamban Channel. In 2020 (February), work started and is going on at a fast pace from the Rameshwaram end. 2.078 km is the total length of the bridge.
Across the ocean, the reconstructed bridge will have 100 spans (99 spans will be 18.3m, and one span will be 72.5m). The new bridge will be 3 metres taller than the existing bridge. According to the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited’s website rvnl.org, the estimated cost of the project is Rs 279.63 crore.
Specialty of New Pamban Bridge
The 72m long vertical lift span will be the talking point of this iconic new bridge. It will allow the lifting of the span (by 17m). As a result, the ships will be able to pass from below the lifted bridge. For a double track, the vertical lift span is being constructed.
For many years, Pamban Bridge was the lone connection between mainland India and Pamban Island (also called Rameshwaram Island). In India, Rameshwaram is a popular tourist and pilgrimage destination. It has the famous Rameshwaram Temple. The place also has one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.