Pamban bridge stretch to be relaid at Rs 40 Lakhs; plan to install CCTV cameras

On Thursday, NH officials led by Divisional Engineer, Vairappan, from Madurai, inspected the bridge and the road. Though Vairappan refused to address the media, sources at NH department said that to replace the slippery mastic asphalt road a new road with bituminous concrete would be laid and a new estimate had been sent to the higher officials of the department at New Delhi.

The estimate is worth Rs 40 lakh and if the estimate is approved, works for laying new road would commence. As frequent accidents had been reported, the estimate would be taken up urgently and would be approved soon, said the sources.

The sources also said that they are also planning to install CCTV cameras on Pamban bridge to check whether the accidents are due to slippery nature of the road or due to the speeding vehicles. If vehicles are found to be speeding strict action like arrest and remand of vehicle drivers could be taken and for that CCTV cameras, said the sources.

The recently laid mastic asphalt road was slippery, it was the cause of large number of accidents on the bridge. The residents had been staging protests often asking officials to take action. On Wednesday too, there were two accidents on the bridge. They had damaged the parapet wall of the bridge completely. To protest the increasing number of accidents and the inaction by officials, residents of Pamban had staged a novel protest by cutting a cake.

The Pamban road bridge is the only link to Rameswaram island where hundreds of vehicles ply every day to visit Dhanushkodi and the Ramanathaswamy Temple. The road is subjected to wear and tear due to heavy traffic.

Following the directions of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Rameswaram Municipality had started taking steps to address the problems of basic amenities at Rameswaram coast, on Thursday.