RAMANATHAPURAM
Rameswaram– Chennai Sethu Express and Madurai– Rameswaram passenger train suffered a delay of more than five hours as high-velocity wind in Pamban area forced railway authorities to suspend train service on Pamban rail bridge on Tuesday night.
Sethu Express (22662), which left Rameswaram at 8.15 p.m., was stopped at Pamban railway station ahead of the bridge as it had got no signal to pass through the two-km-long India’s only cantilever bridge following strong wind.
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It appeared that the wind velocity slowed down after midnight only to pick up momentum soon. Railwaymen posted at the bridge kept checking the wind velocity with the help of a portable anemometer and the wind finally gave way for the express at 1.45 a.m., railway sources said.
Madurai– Rameswaram passenger train (56723), which reached Mandapam station around 9.10 p.m., was also held up at the station for more than five hours. After Sethu express left, the passenger train passed through the bridge at 2.20 a.m.
Later, Varanasi– Rameswaram weekly express was allowed to pass through the bridge after a brief held-up, the sources added.
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The railwaymen stood helpless as the anemometers at both ends of the rail bridge automatically turned the signal red, moments after the wind velocity exceeded the permissible limit of 58 km per hour. They waited patiently as the wind velocity kept fluctuating, till it subsided in the early hours of Wednesday, the sources said.
Though the wind velocity came down to the permissible limit at times, officials waited till it stabilised, the sources said.
Chennai-bound passengers on Sethu express began to sleep as they had no option of road travel in the absence of bus service.
The railways faced this kind of problem twice or thrice a year, but it was the first time in recent times that high-velocity wind held up movement of trains for more than five hours, the sources said.
On May 18 last year, the two trains suffered a delay of more than an hour following strong wind.