Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi rail link remains a non-starter

Project cost has gone up as experts have recommended elevated embankment

Two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi railway line, work is yet to commence on the 17.2-km stretch, as officials await the sanctioning of the revised cost estimate, which has more than tripled. Only the survey work for the project has been completed. After engineers from IIT-Madras recommended an elevated embankment of about six-seven metres above road level, the original estimate of ₹208 crore was revised upwards to ₹700 crore, sources in the Southern Railway told The Hindu on Wednesday. The Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi railway line and establishments were washed away along with a train in a devastating cyclone in 1964. The severe storm also brought Dhanushkodi town under water, leaving dozens of people dead. Since the night of December 24 that year, the services of the prestigious Boat Mail, also known as the Indo-Ceylon Express, which provided a boat link to Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka, also came to a halt.