Pamban bridge lapses: Form centre on bridge research, special window for clearance of iconic structures, says Railways panel

The Indian Express has learnt that the five-member committee submitted its report in January this year and gave approval for the bridge while noting down a series of suggestions to avoid any fault in future bridge constructions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate Pamban bridge on the occasion of Ram Navami (April 6). Sources said that Modi will also inaugurate the 15th train on the Pamban route.

“The bridge has been designed as per the relevant provisions of the IRS Steel Bridge Code duly accounting for the fatigue for annual traffic of 50 GMT (gross million tonnes) and a design life of 100 years. Thus, the bridge is structurally safe to serve the intended purposes,” the committee said in its report.

Principal executive director (bridge), railway board; a senior official from Research Design & Standard Organisation (RDSO); chief bridge engineer of Southern Railway; director of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and independent safety expert were the members of the committee formed by the Railway Board.

In its report, the committee also said that the complete record on design, drawing and quality control on welding as generated during fabrication of spans, shall be preserved by chief bridge engineer as well as RVNL, a Railways Navratna which spearheaded the project, for any future reference.

“To facilitate faster clearance of designs of such iconic structures involving modern technologies, constant interaction is required between consultants, RDSO & academic institutes. An advanced centre on bridge research, testing and health monitoring needs to be developed for the Indian Railways preferably at Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Vadodara,” the committee suggested.

Unlike Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), a premier body on road construction, and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), a body on building construction, India does not have such a government organisation for bridge construction and conducting research in the area.

The Pamban bridge is 2.05 km long with a unique 72 m vertical lift span, one of its kind in the country. The newly-built bridge, which is being considered as an engineering marvel, will replace the british-era bridge, which was opened in 1914 and had a double-leaf bascule section with a Scherzer rolling type lift span that can be raised to let ships pass.

However, while giving approval for the operation of trains on the new bridge, the Commission of Railway Safety, a railway safety audit body under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, had flagged some violations, including the failure to not follow the standard design of the RDSO.

“The railways committee also looked into all these objections in detail. The committee said that as it is a completely new structure with complex design, following an existing standard design of RDSO was not possible. The design of the bridge has been done by Spanish company M/S TYPSA, an international consultant. The Pamban Bridge is designed with European and Indian Codes. Its design was proof checked by IIT, Chennai. As it was designed by a foreign consultant, it was not possible to get it examined by the RDSO,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Railways.

While there are many similar road bridges in the United States, the new Pamban bridge is only the second vertical lift railway bridge in the world after Hamburg’s Kattwyk Railway Bridge, which was constructed in 2016–2020.

The existing Pamban Rail Bridge is more than 100 years old. It was built in 1914 to connect Mandapam to Rameswaram island situated in the Gulf of Mannar. The Rail operations on the old bridge were suspended in December 2022. It was the only link connecting the two locations until a new road bridge was built parallel to the sea link in 1988.

The old bridge played an important role in trade and pilgrimage for over 100 years, but due to corrosion, high maintenance and operational challenges, the decision to construct a new Pamban bridge was taken.