Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan has sought assistance from Japan for building an alternative bridge to replace century-old Hardinge Bridge in Pabna.

The minister made the request when Japan’s High Commissioner in Dhaka Ito Naoki met him in the capital’s Railway Bhaban today.

“This is a very old structure and we have to build an alternative. We have discussed over several structures including the Hardinge Bridge,” Railways Ministry Secretary Mofazzel Hossain told The Daily Star.

READ MORE Iconic Hardinge Bridge: A tale of 138 years

They also discussed over the proposed Bangabandhu Rail Bridge over the Jamuna river, Multi-modal Transport Hub centering Kamalapur Railway Station and Metro rail projects.

Japan is funding the under-construction Mass Rapid Transit-6, popularly known as metro rail and expected to invest Bangabandhu Rail Bridge and Kamalapur Multi-modal Transport Hub.

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Iconic Hardinge Bridge: A tale of 138 years

The Hardinge Bridge, which already recorded 100 years of use and counting, is one of the many structures built by the British empire. The bridge shares a significant history of Bangladesh, and specifically, of Pabna.

The construction on the bridge had begun on 1910 under the British Railway Department and it took two years to complete. The first train moved on the bridge on January 1, 1915 as an engineering test while the bridge was officially inaugurated by Lord Hardinge on March, 4 that year.