Pamban Bridge | |
|---|---|
 Pamban Bridge | |
| Coordinates | 9°16′57.25″N 79°12′5.91″E / 9.2825694°N 79.2016417°E |
| Carries | Rail |
| Locale | Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Owner | Indian Railways |
| Characteristics | |
| Total length | 6,776 feet (2,065 m) |
| No. of spans | 144 |
| Rail characteristics | |
| No. of tracks | 1 |
| Track gauge | Broad gauge |
| History | |
| Construction start | August 1911 |
| Construction end | February 1914 |
| Opened | 24 February 1914 |
| Closed | 23 December 2022 |
| Replaced by | New Pamban Bridge |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | Suspended |
| Location | |
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Pamban Bridge (Tamil: [paːmbɐn], romanised: pāmban) is a railway bridge that connects the town of Rameswaram on Pamban Island with Mandapam in mainland India. Opened on 24 February 1914, it was India's first sea bridge, and was the longest sea bridge in India until the opening of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link in 2010. The rail bridge is, for the most part, a conventional bridge resting on concrete piers but has a double-leaf bascule section midway, which can be raised to let ships and barges pass through.
The Pamban bridge was the only surface transport link that connected Rameswaram to the mainland India till 1988 when a road bridge was constructed parallel to the railway bridge. In 2020, construction of a new bridge closer to the existing one began which was planned to eventually replace the existing bridge. In December 2022, rail transportation on the bridge was suspended permanently as the bascule section had weakened significantly due to corrosion.