Where is the old and over 2 km-long “Pamban Railway Bridge”, which attracts…

Concept: A strait is a narrow, naturally formed channel of water that connects two larger seas or water bodies and often separates two lands from each other; long causeway-style bridges built over straits or channels typically connect an island to the mainland.

Application: The Pamban Railway Bridge, first opened in 1914 near Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, is about 2.06 km long and spans the Palk Strait (locally called the Pamban Channel), linking Rameswaram Island to the Indian mainland at Mandapam. Its age, length, and status as a major tourist draw match the description in the question.

Contrast: Checking the description against each offered location:

• Nilgiri refers to the Nilgiri Hills, an interior highland range in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, not a sea channel that a railway bridge would span.

• Krishna delta lies on the Andhra Pradesh coast where the Krishna river meets the Bay of Bengal; it is a river delta, not the narrow strait crossed by this bridge.

• Malabar coast is the south-western coastal belt of Kerala and Karnataka; it does not correspond to the specific channel this bridge crosses.

Only the Palk Strait — the channel between Rameswaram Island and Sri Lanka — is where a roughly 2 km railway bridge to an island would be built, so the Pamban Railway Bridge is located over the Palk Strait.