Cochin Harbour Extension Railway
Cochin Harbour Extension Railway An extension to the Shoranur-Cochin Railway opened in 1938.
The Shoranur-Cochin Railway; had been constructed in 1902, owned by the State but worked by South Indian Railway(SIR). The metre gauge(MG) line from Shoranur came only to the Ernakulam Terminus in Cochin.
In order to handle the cargo from Cochin Port and connect to the rest of India this existing line had to be converted to broad gauge(BG).
The new broad gauge line would pass through Ernakulam into Willingdon Island. Many different routes were studied and new stations were planned, and built along the way. These were Ernakulam Town, Ernakulam Jn, Perumanur (non-existent), Mattanchery Halt and finally, Cochin Harbour Terminus. More than the passenger traffic, freight traffic was anticipated .
The huge Venduruthy Bridge had to be built to connect Willingdon Island with the mainland. The road bridge across Vembanad Lake was sanctioned and the engineers submitted their plan for a rail bridge alongside the road bridge and it was approved in 1936. Construction work started almost immediately and was completed in 1938.
