Are there any rail connections to Sri Lanka from India?

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Are there any rail connections to Sri Lanka from India?

July 1, 2019, 11:46 AM

There was a rail link to Sri Lanka from India until 1964, with services from Madras to Colombo (the Indo-Ceylon Express). From Madras Egmore passengers took the Rameshwaram Exp. (then known as the “Boat Mail”).

The MG track went through Pamban and reached a pier at Dhanushkodi, the southern tip of the island of Rameshwaram and about 27km from the town of Rameshwaram. (The town of Rameshwaram itself was in those days connected by an extension from Dhanushkodi.) Passengers then used a ferry service to cross the 20km (13km?) of open sea at Adam’s Bridge (a series of coral reefs), and then boarded the connecting train at Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The ferry steamer was run by SR (earlier by SIR).

In 1964, a fierce cyclone destroyed much of the track and the pier (and much of the town) at Dhanushkodi. This was never repaired, and today the tracks on the Indian side go directly to Rameshwaram and then stop about 4km before the tip of Rameshwaram island. Traces of the old line still remain in parts, but much of the old tracks have been covered over by new buildings and other development. A new wharf and terminal was constructed at Rameshwaram after the cyclone, and international ferry services continued from there, but in 1984 or 1985 the international ferry service was withdrawn.

Now [2002] there are some suggestions that the ferry service will be resumed, and in both countries terminal services are being set up again. There is also a plan to open ferry services directly between Tuticorin and Colombo, something that existed back in 1913 as well.

Around 1910, there was an attempt by South Indian Rly. to construct a direct railway link from India to Ceylon, by building a viaduct at Panban, but this was not carried through to completion.

Source – IFRCA.org

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