Tamil Nadu: Locals want old Pamban Bridge to be preserved

Chennai: For about 108 years, the Cantilever Bridge across the Pamban coast connecting Rameswaram island with India not only ferried passengers but also served as a lifeline for the people living there. The bridge, built in 1914 during the British regime, survived a deadly cyclone in 1964 and decades of sea erosion.

The Scherzer rolling and lift span in the middle of the old bridge, which opened to allow ships and vessels to pass through, was a tourist attraction with people lining up along the road bridge built in 1988 to catch a glimpse.

The rolling and lift span will now be part of history, as a new vertical lift span bridge, India’s first sea rail bridge, replaces the old structure.

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), which constructed the new structure at a cost of Rs 543 crores, has floated a tender for dismantling the rolling and lift span, while Southern Railway will remove the remaining parts of the bridge due to safety concerns.

However, the Railway’s move has caused disappointment among locals who demand that the dismantled structure be preserved and a museum be established in Pamban or Mandapam to display it and attract more tourists.

The new bridge was opened in April by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which rail traffic between Mandapam and Rameswaram was restored -- the services having been discontinued in December 2022 after cracks were found on the old bridge.

“Pamban rail bridge is an integral part of the lives of people living in Rameswaram and adjoining areas. We grew up watching trains pass over the bridge and traveling on them. We want the structure to be preserved and showcased for the public,” Sheik Salim, convenor of the A P J Abdul Kalam International Foundation based in Rameswaram, told DH.

Salim, who is also the grandnephew of Kalam, said the Indian Railways should consider setting up a new museum in Pamban or Mandapam to display the removed structure along with old engines and some trains that ran on the route.

“We understand that the structure has become old and must be removed, but since it is part of Rameswaram’s history, it should be preserved,” Salim added.

Several people took to Twitter to demand that the Union Government ensure the old bridge is preserved and showcased since it is an engineering marvel dating back over a century.

Before the road bridge came into existence, the old cantilever bridge was the only surface mode of commute between Rameswaram and the Indian mainland.