Hardinge Bridge, Bangladesh; An Engineering great creation of the world/ A histrorical Railway Bridge of Bangladesh

Introduction: 

During the inauguration of the historic Hardinge Bridge on March 4, 1915, Sir Robert William Gales, the chief engineer of the bridge project, said passionately, 'If the bridge that I have built is properly maintained, this bridge will last forever.' The year 2025 is coming, so even though Hardinge Bridge has reached 110 years old, there is no sign of aging on it. The traditional Hardinge Bridge of Bangladesh, an immortal creation of engineering feat, is still standing in Birdarp after centuries of witnessing many rulers-exploiters and generations.

About 110 years ago, this Hardinge Bridge was built on the banks of the Padma River, which flows over Bangladesh. At that time, the Padma River in Bangladesh was full of youth. Padma's youth is about to end now. But the eternally youthful Hardinge Bridge still stands tall on Padma's bosom. This historic bridge is one of the bridges in the north, south and east of Bangladesh. Hardinge Bridge connecting Pabna and Kushtia districts was once the longest railway bridge in Bangladesh.

 

History of Hardinge Bridge:

The establishment of the historic Hardinge Bridge has a long history. In 1889, the then British government proposed the construction of this bridge, feeling the need to establish an uninterrupted communication system with Assam, Tripura and the northern regions of present-day India. Although the proposal was not implemented at that time, the construction of the bridge was started after a few decades in 1909. The period of construction of the bridge was from 1909 to 1915.

The bridge was built by the tireless work of about 24 thousand 400 workers. According to the then estimates, the construction cost was 3 crore 51 lakh 32 thousand 164 rupees. The bridge was named Hardinge Bridge after the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge. The length of the bridge is 1 thousand 798.32 meters or 5 thousand 894 feet or 1.8 kilometers. There are two broad gauge railway lines above it. The bridge was designed by Alexander Meadows Rendell. The bridge has a total of 15 spans, each span being 120 meters long. This traditional Hardinge Bridge was opened on March 4, 1915.

During the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, the Pakistani army used to cross the bridge with tanks, military equipment and soldiers. On December 13, span number 12 was damaged when the Allied forces dropped bombs from aircraft aiming to corner the Pakistan Army. After independence the Indian government as usual repaired the bridge and restored it to its original position. After that, from October 12, 1972, trains started running over the bridge again.

Extensive survey was done for the construction of this bridge from 1902 AD to 1905 AD. Especially river governance is researched on river depth, river bed hardness etc. In 1907, the research team determined the location of the bridge and announced the conditions suitable for the construction of the bridge. In 1908, British engineer Sir Robert Gales took over the construction of the bridge after getting approval for the construction of the bridge. Sir SM Bendelegh was commissioned to design the bridge, Sir Francis Spring was commissioned to design the project, and Braithwaite & Kirk were the contractors. In 1909, a second round of survey was conducted for the construction of this bridge. In 1910-11 AD, the construction of dams to protect bridges on both banks of the Padma began. From 1,000 yards downstream to 6 kilometers upstream of this bridge, 16 million cubic feet of soil and 23,337,000 cubic feet of stone were used to construct the guide dam. The river, which was about 3 kilometers wide at that time, was narrowed to 1.81 kilometers by damming the Hardinge Bridge on both sides of Pakshi Bheramara-Pabna in Kushtia, Bangladesh, and the water flow capacity of the river stood at 2.5 million cubic feet during the construction of the bridge. In 1912, the construction of the guide banks and girders of the bridge began. After that, wells were dug to install the girders of the bridge. Each of its spans is constructed, measuring 345 feet and a half inches in length and 52 feet in height, from bearing to bearing. 1 thousand 250 tons of iron is spent for this. About 24 thousand workers labored for 5 years to build this bridge. A total of 299,000 tons of brick, 300,000 tons of steel, 1,700,000 drums of ordinary cement and 120,000 drums of kild cement (with special adhesive) were used in the construction. The construction of the bridge was completed at the end of 1914 AD. On January 1, 1915, the first freight train was run on the down line. The first trial train on the up line of the bridge was run on February 25. The bridge was officially inaugurated on 4th March. Passenger trains started running from this day. It was inaugurated by the then Viceroy of British India, Lord Hardinge. The total expenditure for the construction of this bridge was 3 crore 51 lakh 32 thousand 164 taka. Out of this, 1 crore 80 lakh 6 thousand 796 taka for span, 5 lakh 19 thousand 849 taka for land span, 94 lakh 8 thousand 346 taka for river speed control and 71 lakh 55 thousand 173 taka for railway line on both sides.

Special features of the bridge:

 

The deepest water under the bridge is 160 feet or 192 MSL below the lowest water mark. Among them, pillar number 15 well is installed 159.60 feet below the low water level and 190.60 feet below the maximum level i.e. 140 feet below the mean sea level. It was the deepest such foundation in the world at the time. The remaining 14 wells are installed 150 feet below the ground.

 

Chief Engineer Robert William Gales was awarded the title of Sir in recognition of the technique and beauty of the construction of this bridge.

 

During the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the bridge fell into East Pakistan. On December 10, 1971, the Pakistani army could not withstand the attack of the allied forces and retreated towards Dhaka. On the night of December 11, unable to withstand the Allied onslaught, Pakistani troops crossed the Hardinge Bridge towards Pabna. This time they damaged the bridge with mines to prevent the Allied advance. As a result, 12 spans were thrown from the bridge and fell into the river. Besides, the lower side of span number 9 is damaged.

 

After Bangladesh became independent, the British government quickly salvaged its span at their own expense and through the World Organization through Selcoke, the famous Singapore ship salvage company. For the repair of the bridge, India specifically contributed. Indian Eastern Railway Shri HK Banerjee, Chief Engineer Shri RK SK Singh Roy, Divisional Engineer, Shri PCG Majhi, Assistant Engineer participated in the repair of the bridge. In addition, among the engineers of Bangladesh were the then Chief Engineer of Railways Amjad Ali, Engineer in Chief Engr. Md. Imam Uddin Ahmed, Divisional Super M Rahman etc.  

 

Conclusion:

 

Finally, I can say that Hardinge Bridge of Bangladesh is an excellent creation of engineering craft. Congratulations and gratitude to all the engineers, technicians, workers and authorities who were tirelessly involved in the construction of this railway bridge, which is one of the oldest railway bridges in the world. May be many of them are not alive in this world, but their wonderful creations still exist in the world which are constantly being used for human welfare for communication.