The 2.07-kilometre-long New Pamban Bridge, spanning the Palk Strait in Tamil Nadu, stands as a testament to India’s engineering prowess and visionary infrastructure development, the Ministry of Railways said in a statement.
The bridge has one vertical lift spanning 72.5 metres with two tracks. The approach has 88 spans of 18.3-metre steel plate girders fabricated for a single line.
The bridge’s story traces back to 1914, when British engineers constructed the original Pamban bridge. A cantilever (a long piece of metal or wood that extends from a wall to support the end of a bridge) structure with a Scherzer Rolling Lift span to connect Rameswaram Island with mainland India. However, the new bridge, sanctioned in 2019, is three metres higher than the existing one, improving sea connectivity.
