A weekly train, which runs between Mandapam in Tamil Nadu and Ayodhya Cantt in Uttar Pradesh, will now stop at Ramanathapuram and Karaikudi from September 20, the railways said on Wednesday.
The Shraddha Sethu Superfast Express was flagged off in July 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it connects places of pilgrimage linked to Lord Ram.
There was a demand from pilgrims as well as the people of Ramanathapuram and Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu that these places be included among the stoppages of the train, a spokesperson of the Southern Railways (SR) said.
The SR has "decided to provide stoppage to the Shraddha Sethu Superfast Express at these two stations on an experimental basis", the official said.
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The express train according to schedule should run between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Ayodhya Cantt in Uttar Pradesh. But since February, it has been operating from Mandapam as the Pamban bridge, which connects mainland India to the Rameswaram Island, was closed.
The old Pamban bridge has been closed and a new bridge is being constructed, the spokesperson said. Mandapam is the station before Rameswaram.
The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), which started the construction of the bridge in February 2020, was supposed to complete it by December 2021.
"The completion of the bridge was delayed due to Covid. We are expecting the bridge to be ready and operational by the end of October," the spokesperson said, adding that the bridge 2.078 km long.
