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NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the newly built Pamban Railway Bridge, India’s first vertical lift sea bridge, linking the pilgrim town of Rameswaram with the mainland, and flagged off the Rameswaram-Tambaram train and a Coast Guard ship, marking a major infrastructure milestone in Tamil Nadu.
Visuals showed first train crossing new Pamban Bridge after its flag-off ceremony. Built at a cost of Rs 550 crore, the 2.08-km-long bridge spans the Palk Strait with 99 spans and a central 72.5-metre vertical lift span that can rise 17 meters to allow large ships to pass underneath.
Southern Railway said select mail, express, and passenger trains will now start and end at Rameswaram with the commissioning of the bridge, which features corrosion-resistant paint, stainless steel reinforcement, and 333 foundation piles designed to withstand marine and seismic challenges.
Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin skipped the event, citing prior commitments in Udhagamandalam. In a veiled criticism, he asked the Prime Minister to “allay fears” of the people over the proposed delimitation exercise.
PM Modi, who returned from Sri Lanka before the event, received a warm welcome in Tamil Nadu. Present at the ceremony were Governor R N Ravi, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, and BJP leaders including K Annamalai, H Raja, and Vanathi Srinivasan.
Officials called the bridge a leap in engineering, comparing it with global icons like the Tower Bridge in London and the Oresund Bridge in Denmark. Southern Railway hailed it as a “blend of tradition and technology,” built to endure nature’s extremes while boosting spiritual and regional connectivity.
