An Indian Coast Guard vessel passes through the Pamban Channel as the railway authorities lifted the centre spans of the new and old Pamban rail bridges on Friday.
| Photo Credit: L. Balachandar
As a prelude to the commissioning of the New Pamban Rail Bridge, Madurai Division of Southern Railway on Friday conducted a trial of lifting the centre spans of both the old and the new rail bridges for a dry run of an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessel through the Pamban Channel under the bridges.
Senior officials from Madurai Division — Divisional Engineer (North) Sandeep Bhaskar, Senior Divisional Signal and Telecommunication Engineer R. Ram Prasath, and Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer V. Manjunath Yadav — inspected the trial run.
The day started with the empty rake of Kanniyakumari — Rameswaram tri-weekly express being operated up to Rameswaram on the New Pamban Rail Bridge for maintenance works.
The officials opened the Scherzer’s span of the old rail bridge and lifted the vertical span of the new bridge to allow passing of the ICG vessel in the forenoon. After the vessel passed, the vertical lift was lowered for train operation. It was once again operated later.
“We tested the operation of the central spans of both the bridges just to get ready for rail operation. The testing went on smoothly,” Divisional Railway Manager Sharad Srivastava told The Hindu.
He said engineers of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited would stay back for a few weeks to provide technical support to the officials of Madurai Division, who would operate the bridge after its commissioning.
The DRM said all the technical works that were directed by the Commissioner of Railway Safety in the new bridge, as a precondition for commissioning the bridge, had been completed. The report on completion of works would be submitted to him very soon.
Rake maintenance
Meanwhile, coach maintenance work at the pit lines in Rameswaram resumed on Friday as part of preparing the ground for resuming train operations up to the temple town.
Rail operation between Mandapam in the mainland and Rameswaram island has remained suspended from January 2023 as a precautionary measure after the sensors installed on the old rail bridge flagged weakness in its stability.
Since then, all the trains are being terminated at Mandapam railway station and the coach maintenance works were shifted to Madurai.
Published – January 31, 2025 07:52 pm IST