‘With lift span provision at Rameshwaram’s new Pamban bridge, even bigger vessels can pass easily’: R Srinivasan of RVNL

Q: Can you explicate the value of the caller Pamban Rail Bridge and it being the country’s archetypal vertical assistance bridge?

R Srinivasan: The Pamban Bridge, located successful Tamil Nadu, connects Rameswaram land with the Indian mainland. It is unsocial due to the fact that it is the archetypal vertical assistance span span successful India. It is the archetypal of its benignant successful Asia arsenic well. The Pamban oversea span stretches implicit 2.10 km with respective spans. Out of these, 1 navigational span/girder is 72.5 meters long, portion the remaining spans are 18.3 meters each. The caller span allows Mail and Express trains to tally astatine 75 kmph, dissimilar the older span (currently closed) that allowed trains to tally lone astatine 10 kmph.

R Srinivasan, Senior Deputy General Manager astatine Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL)

Once opened, the Pamban obstruction span volition link Rameswaram land with the mainland, including assorted parts of the country. In a day, 17 Mail/Express trains, including rider trains, would question to and from Rameswaram.

Q: What makes this span basal out?

Srinivasan: The astir singular diagnostic of this span is the vertical assistance span, which is lifted utilizing electromagnetic technology, alternatively of manual operation. The lifting process takes 5 minutes and 30 seconds to spell astatine a tallness of 17 metres, and the span weighs 660 metric tonnes. The assistance spans are supported by 4 towers, and the combined value of the towers and counterweights is 1,450 metric tonnes. Additionally, the span is built with 336 piles, each made of stainless alloy to forestall corrosion.

The Railway Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) mandates that immoderate span constructed wrong 30 km of the oversea indispensable usage stainless alloy reinforcement alternatively of mean alloy to combat corrosion. Since the Pamban Bridge is located implicit the sea, stainless alloy reinforcement was utilized passim the bridge. Furthermore, the fabrication of span components was done 60 km distant from the oversea to support the prime of the materials.

The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) granted support to statesman commercialized operations successful November past year, and the span is present awaiting authoritative inauguration.

Q: Why was determination a request for a assistance span alternatively of constructing a span astatine a higher elevation to let easier vas movement?

Srinivasan: The request for a assistance span arose owed to definite constraints. There is already a roadworthy span crossing the obstruction bridge. So, gathering a caller span connected a higher elevation wasn’t imaginable without interfering with the existing infrastructure. Additionally, considering the coastal area’s precocious upwind velocity — averaging astir 40 kmph regular – constructing a precocious oversea span for Railways could beryllium unsafe arsenic it mightiness topple the railway coaches. As the roadworthy overbridge is implicit 22 metres successful tallness astatine the vas navigational way site, the obstruction overbridge has to beryllium constructed supra that, which was not feasible owed to upwind speed.

Once opened for use, the Pamban obstruction span volition link Rameshwaram land with the mainland, including assorted parts of the country.

At present, owed to the aged bridge, which is non-functional, ships and bigger vessels request to usage the h2o way via Sri Lanka. With the caller Pamban span assistance span provision, adjacent bigger vessels tin walk easily, provided the Tamil Nadu Maritime Department informs the Railways successful beforehand astir the vas movement, if any.

The tallness quality betwixt the caller span and the aged span is 3 metres. The caller span is 6.5 metres high. But its longest navigational assistance span tin spell up to 17 metres. In opposition to the aged bridge, wherever the cantilevers unfastened up having a navigational span magnitude of 68 metres, the caller span has a navigational span/girder that tin emergence to 17 metres (height) with a magnitude of 72.5 metres. Moreover, the caller span is equipped with information standards, including mechanisms to guarantee that the span tin withstand upwind velocity of up to 58 kmph. Beyond that, the awesome automatically turns red, restricting bid question until the upwind velocity is normal.

Q: Can you elaborate connected the challenges progressive during construction?

Srinivasan: Ordinary welding was not capable successful the lawsuit of the Pamban Railway Bridge. Highly skilled welding was required for its construction. So we enlisted the Welding Research Institute, Tamil Nadu, to bid and suffice the welders. Only those certified by the institute were employed for the job. Additionally, each segments of the span were painted with rust-resistant coatings to support them from corrosion.

The fabrication parts of the span were built 60 km distant from the tract to support the prime of the segments cast. As the operation was taking spot successful a coastal area, precocious upwind velocity was a large challenge. The span operation began successful February 2019. It was completed past year with the assistance of 400 workers connected tract daily. However, the enactment got affected during the Covid-19 outbreak.All required support has been obtained for commercialized operations to begin.