Pamban Rail Bridge (Pamban Railway Scissors Bridge),
Rameshwaram, Ramanathapuram
Rameswaram
is an island and is connected to the main land only by the Pamban rail and
road bridges. The far end of Rameswaram Island is Dhanushkodi. So, to go
out of Rameswaram, one has to pass through the Pamban Bridge. It
was India’s longest sea bridge for 96 years till 2008. The train bridge
opens up in the middle when ships pass underneath. Pamban Rail Bridge connects
the mainland to the Rameswaram Island.
This
2.06 Km long rail bridge was built with stones from a distance of 320 km and
sand from 160 kms. The bridge was constructed on 145 stone pillars. A
portion of the bridge opens up like a pair of scissors to let the ships pass under
it. Hence it is also called as Scissors Bridge.
On
December 22, 1964 the devastating cyclone brought down the entire bridge and
the Indian Engineers rebuilt the same precisely in 45 days and made it
operational once again. This proved the superiority of Indian Engineers.
According
to Indian Railways' chief construction engineer, the bridge is located in the
world's second most corrosive environment after Florida, making its maintenance a challenging job. The location
is also a cyclone-prone high wind velocity zone. The bridge consists of 143
piers and the centre span is a Scherzer rolling type lift span. Each half of
the lifting span weighs 415 tonnes.
The Pamban
Bridge is a railway bridge on the Palk
Strait which connects the
town of Rameswaram on Pamban
Island to mainland India.
The bridge refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge,
though primarily it means the latter.
Opened on 24 February 1914, it was
India's first sea bridge, and was the longest sea bridge in India until the
opening of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in 2010. The rail
bridge is for the most part, a conventional bridge resting on concrete piers,
but has a double leaf bascule section midway, which can be raised to let ships
and barges pass through.
History
Pamban
Railway Bridge was the first Indian bridge which is built across the sea.
It is generally referred as the queen of Indian bridges. The railway
bridge is 6,776 ft. (2,065 m) long. It was opened on 24 February
1914, construction having begun in 1911.
However,
plans for a bridge had been suggested from as early as 1870 as the British
Administration sought ways to increase trade with Ceylon. The bridge has a still-functioning
double-leaf bascule section that can be raised to let ships pass. The
adjacent road bridge was opened in 1988.
The
railway bridge historically carried metre gauge trains, but Indian
Railways upgraded the bridge
to carry broad gauge trains as part of Project
Unigauge, work that was completed
on 12 August 2007. Until recently, the two leaves of the bridge were
opened manually using levers by workers.
Around 10 ships — cargo carriers, coast guard
ships, fishing vessels and oil tankers — pass through the bridge every
month. More work was carried out on the bridge in 2009 to strengthen it to
enable it to carry goods trains.
After
completion of the bridge, metre-gauge lines were laid from Mandapam up to Pamban
station. From here the railway line bifurcated, one line towards Rameshwaram about 6.25 miles (10.06 km) up and another
branch line of 15 miles (24 km) terminating at Dhanushkodi.
The
section was opened to traffic in 1914. The Ministry of Indian Railways sanctioned
Rs. 25 crore to replace the existing 65.23 – meter – long rolling type span,
which opened like a pair of scissors to allow the vessels to pass the bridge
with 66-meter – long single truss span which could be opened with the press of
the button.
The
noted Boat Mail ran on this track between 1915 and 1964 from
Madras – Egmore up to Dhanushkodi, from where the passengers were ferried
to Talaimannar in Ceylon. The metre-gauge branch line from Pamban
Junction to Dhanushkodi was abandoned after it was destroyed by the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone. The bridge was subsequently restored to working
conditions under Elattuvalapil Sreedharan in just 46 days.
On
13 January 2013 the bridge suffered minor damage when a naval barge drifted
into it. The tug towing a naval barge from Kolkata to Karwar near Mumbai ran aground hitting rocks on 10 January during bad
weather.
The 220
tonne barge then drifted into the bridge causing part of it to tilt slightly
and requiring repair work to the piers. In 2013 it was reported that Indian
Railways had applied to UNESCO for the bridge to
be made a world heritage site.
On
December 23, 1964, A Super cyclonic storm struck the Pamban Bridge with
the velocity of 240 Km/hr after swept off the entire Dhanushkodi & upturned
the Pamban – Dhanushkodi passenger Train with 150 passengers. Part of the
Pamban Railway Bridge was shattered and broken because of the catastrophe.
After this disaster, the Indian Railway Engineers team had been come up
with a 6 month plan to set back the tracks on place and repairing of
bridge.
The
bridge was renovated and restored again in just 46 days under the leadership of
I.E.S officer E.sreedharan renowned as Metro man. For his quick heel action to
the Pamban Bridge he was honoured by Railway minister Award by that year. The
100th year celebration of the Pamban rail bridge was celebrated in 2014
February 24. Recently Pamban Bridge is nominated for UNESCO’s heritage status.
Location
The
bridge spans a 2 km-strait between mainland and island and is the only
surface transport link between the two. The mainland end of the bridge is
located at 9°16’56.70’N 79°11’20.12’E.
Architecture
The
bridge spans a length of 6776 feet (2.065 meters) and has 143 piers. There is a
double leaf bascule in the center of this bridge. This bascule section
opens up and let the ships and boats to cross the Pamban Bridge over the sea.
Based on the records averagely there are 10 to 15 large boats or ships (coast
guard boats, cargo ships, container ships etc.,) pass beneath this bridge every
month.
The
bascule was designed by “Scherzer” a German engineer, the bascule
part of the bridge is called as “Scherzer rolling type lift span” and have the
length of 220 feet and weight of 200 tonnes (each leaf weighs 100 tonnes
separately). Till date these heavy weight leaves are lifted manually by workers
operating levers on either side. The environment where The Pamban Rail
Bridge stands is said as world’s second most corrosive environment and also
this region is a Cyclone prone and high velocity wind zone.
·
Length –
2.06 KM
·
Number of
piers – 143
·
Structural
Design – Cantilever, bascule Bridge
·
Railway
Track – Broad Gauge
·
Crosses
– Palk Strait
·
Connecting
Railway stations – Mandapam – Pamban
·
Location
– 9°16´56.70´´N 79°11´20.12´´ E / 9.2824167° N 79.1889222° E