Pamban railway bridge: Trial runs to resume with empty rakes

Neenu Ittyerah, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Southern Railway, said the deadline for completion of restoration was extended by 12 hours and added that the operation of the trains, with empty rakes is expected to begin on Monday.

Over the last 10 days, owing to ongoing repair works, the services of the Tirupati–Rameswaram express train was terminated in Madurai.

However, the resumption of train services to Rameswaram will happen once the third-party external agency submits its audit after testing fitness of the bridge, the DRM said. Further, sources said since pit-line facility is available at Madurai, the express train was halted there.

In December, authorities noticed a fissure on a portion of the century-old cantilever bridge, which connects Rameswaram with the mainland. Subsequently, a decision was made to stop all the trains at Mandapam.

Passengers are commuting between Mandapam and Rameswaram via special buses. Normally, four pairs of passenger trains were operational to and from Rameswaram on a daily basis, besides two daily express trains, six bi-weekly express trains and two tri-weekly express trains. All these trains were terminated at Mandapam owing to execution of bridge repair works, sources added.

In December, Chief Bridge Engineer K Ravindra Babu inspected the repair works along with other Southern Railway officials and said that the stability of the bridge needed to be checked.