An India-Sri Lanka direct rail or road link needs just a 25-km-long bridge. The Pamban Bridge, recently inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, completes a crucial part of a direct train from Chennai to Colombo. Planned by the British, and brought to the drawing table time and again, an India-Lanka rail link would boost both ties and trade.
Board the Indo-Ceylon Express from Egmore station in Madras (now Chennai), ride through the eastern coastal plains, cross the Pamban Bridge into Rameshwaram, reach Dhanushkodi, the last Indian station, then sail across the Palk Strait to Talaimannar and catch a train straight to Colombo. That is how most people travelled from Madras to Colombo, before 1964, the year when the Rameswaram cyclone ravaged coastal Tamil Nadu.
The cyclone of 1964 destroyed the 110-year-old Pamban Rail Bridge, Pamban island’s only link to mainland India. The cyclone bearing winds of over 150 kmph also destroyed the railway line connecting Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi, 24 kilometres west of Sri Lanka’s Talaimannar. Since 1964, trains have been terminating at Rameshwaram, instead of Dhanushkodi.
Sixty-years later and a few kilometres away, as Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly constructed Pamban Bridge on April 6, replacing the 110-year-old structure, it also revived a dream.
Some past developments, source-based reports, the recent resurgence in celebrating Ram’s heritage, and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) political posturing before the 2026 Tamil Nadu (TN) election, all suggest that the dice might be rolling behind closed doors, and a new bridge between India and Sri Lanka is not unlikely. The seamless rail connectivity to Rameshwaram offers an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a direct India–Sri Lanka rail link. And that would mean bridging the gap between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka’s Talaimannar in Mannar Island, including another bridge or tunnel parallel to the famous Adam’s Bridge, also called the Rama Setu.
The 1964 cyclone did not just disrupt connectivity between India and Sri Lanka, it dealt a blow to a grander vision: a seamless rail link between the two nations and beyond, first envisioned by the British, later proposed by a few multilateral forums, and now, reportedly, a subject of some discussion and buzz.
The 110-year-old bridge served as the only connection to Rameshwaram, apart from ferries, from its commissioning in 1914 until 1988, when a parallel road bridge was constructed. The old bridge has been replaced by the one inaugurated recently by PM Modi.
In the cyclone’s aftermath, the focus shifted to restoring the damaged Pamban Bridge and other infrastructure, and the idea of a seamless cross-country link slipped onto the back burner.
The British plan
The seed of the vision to connect India and Sri Lanka was sown during British rule. Following the proposals to have railway systems in both countries, came the proposal to connect both of them. These proposals came as a result of the colonial masters in the 1830s feeling the need to move goods and labourers across their empire efficiently. It was around the same time as domestic railway systems were being developed in British India and British Ceylon.
By 1914, the South Indian Railway company achieved the difficult task of completing the Pamban Bridge, which took metre gauge trains to Dhanushkodi. This ushered in the era of multi-modal Chennai-Colombo connectivity. Only the last rail link between Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar, in Sri Lanka, remained.
A proposal to build a rail bridge to Thalaimannar was submitted to the British Parliament after a feasibility study, but it was rejected due to cost concerns. Then came World War I. So, with the last leg unfinished, the transport of people and goods continued through a mix of rail and ferry.
The Indo-Ceylon Boat Mail service became a symbol of close cultural, economic, and logistical ties between India and Sri Lanka. The service allowed passengers to travel from Madras to Dhanushkodi by train, cross the Palk Strait using the steamer to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka, and then continue by rail to Colombo.
This was how it continued till the cyclone of 1964. With the rail tracks to Dhanushkodi washed away and the Pamban Bridge damaged, the unique connectivity was lost. It also stalled the further expansion of the railways that the British had envisioned.
Then, the civil war in Sri Lanka, a cash crunch, local resistance on both sides, and viability concerns pushed the project into cold storage.
Proposed rail-and-road bridge
The bigger ambition of going beyond Rameswaram requires bridging the Palk Strait itself. The shortest distance of which will be between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar, 25 kms.
Proposals for a rail-and-road bridge or an undersea tunnel between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar have come up periodically, with feasibility studies being done. And this is where the new Pamban Bridge could serve as a catalyst in taking the railway line ahead.
The success of the new Pamban Bridge would also prove that India can develop critical and mega infrastructure that are cyclone-resistant.
Remnants of the Dhanushkodi railway station
The first major push for an India-Sri Lanka rail link came in July 2002, when Colombo proposed a road-cum-rail bridge from Rameswaram to Talaimannar. Though an agreement was signed, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister (CM) J Jayalalithaa opposed it, citing security concerns amid a debate over the project’s financial viability. The plan was shelved.
But the present political posturing of Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK’s can help negate the resistance the party has had regarding the bridge. However, it is the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) that is in power in TN now.
There is a growing buzz about a pre-poll alliance between the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) and the AIADMK for the 2026 Assembly election in TN.
Jayalalithaa felt that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would bring in “gun culture and, worse still, the horror of suicide bombing” into the peaceful state of TN, according to a report in the Hindustan Times by author-academic Adluri Subramanyam Raju.
Then came 2011, when the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Member States agreed on the Regional Agreement on Railways at the Second Meeting of the Expert Group in Kathmandu. In that meeting, the SAARC countries laid special emphasis on regional connectivity.
To think of it, Sri Lanka is the only neighbour with which India does not have a direct rail link. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal are all linked by rail to India. An India-Bhutan rail link is also on the cards.
In June 2015, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari pitched the India-Sri Lanka connectivity project to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which agreed to fund it. But in December, then Transport Minister Lakshman Kiriella rejected the proposal, reported the Tamil Guardian in 2015. Then for eight years, there was no word on the project.
In 2023, Sri Lankan economists Gayasha Samarakoon and Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, in their paper ‘Economic Rationale for the Proposed Bridge between India and Sri Lanka’, argued that a road-and-rail bridge over the Palk Strait would slash bilateral freight costs by at least 50 percent.
Recent Developments
This brings us to the recent developments that hint that something concrete on the bridge is around the corner.
In 2024, then President Ranil Wickremesinghe said the feasibility study for land connectivity with India was nearing completion, with preliminary work done and the final phase underway, according to a report by news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).
That a plan is being actively discussed was revealed in October 2024.
“Last month, I participated in a meeting with India in New Delhi, and we are going to establish highway and railway line connectivity between India and Sri Lanka,” said then Environment Ministry Secretary, B.K. Prabath Chandrakeerth, according to a report in India’s Mint newspaper.
He added that the project is estimated to cost nearly US$ 5 billion, which would be fully funded by the Indian Government (as opposed to the ADB).
Days later, however, a Cabinet Minister refuted the report as “misleading”.
India and Sri Lanka have robust bilateral trade relations. With India being Sri Lanka’s biggest trading partner, and the two countries having a vibrant Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the economic viability of the connectivity project cannot be undermined.
Over the years, India has expanded its infrastructure footprint in the island nation. PM Modi, during his recent bilateral trip to Sri Lanka last week, launched two India-assisted railway projects, along with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“These landmark railway modernisation projects implemented under the India-Sri Lanka development partnership represent a significant milestone in strengthening North-South rail connectivity in Sri Lanka,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (EAM) said following the launch.
With India trying to bridge all possible gaps with its neighbours, a direct rail link with Sri Lanka cannot be called a figment of imagination. The Pamban Bridge, recently inaugurated by PM Modi, could prove to be a crucial piece of that bigger India-Sri Lanka rail link. After all, as mentioned previously, the distance that the two need to “bridge” is just 25 km.
The writer covers geopolitics, culture and heritage issues for India Today. [email protected]
