Performance test of metro rail from the city’s Uttara to Agargaon was conducted successfully on Sunday.
Managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) MAN Siddique said this at a function at Agargaon metro rail station following the successful performance test on 11.58 kilometres track from Uttara to Agargaon yesterday.
“Metro Rail’s commercial operation up to Agargaon station will start on December 16 next year. In the second phase, Metrorail will run the rest of the route in December 2023,” said MAN Siddique.
He further said that seven sets of metrorail have arrived at the depot, another set will arrive today (Monday), he said adding that two more metro rail sets will be added to the fleet in January.
“Commercial operations of metro rail will start in December 2022 with a total of 10 metrorail sets. We will be able to finish the trial run of the sets by next September. Then we will take the rest of the preparations in the next three months so that the Metrorail can run up to Agargaon station with passengers in December,” MAN Siddique added further.
During the test, metrorail crossed nine stations— Uttara North, Uttara Centre, Uttara South, Pallabi, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-10, Kazipara, Shewrapara and Agargaon. Workers of metro rail project were the passengers during the performance test.
According to the DTMCL sources, the performance test will continue step by step for the next one year. At the beginning, metro rail test run was conducted from Uttara to next three stations. In the second phase in November, the test continues till Mirpur 10. And finally on Sunday, performance test was conducted up to Agargaon.
According to sources, the speed of the train has been determined before this test run. Metrorail will run at a speed of 15 km from Uttara to Agargaon.
According to Metrorail’s work progress report last month, the overall progress of the project till last November was 72 percent. Of this, the progress of work from Uttara to Agargaon is 89.61 percent. And the progress of Motijheel part from Agargaon is 70.57 percent.
The length of metro rail from Uttara to Motijheel Bangladesh Bank is 20.10 kilometers. Of this, 18.50 km flyover has been constructed. There will be 16 stations on this route. In the meantime, the work of six stations from Uttara to Agargaon has been completed.
Read more: Metro rail sees 73pc progress
It is learned that work on the remaining 10 stations is underway. Work on power connection is also going on. However, all the works including electricity connection have been completed in 11.37 km from Uttara to Agargaon.
It may be mentioned that the cost of the Metrorail construction project is Tk 22,000 crore. The project is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Japanese organization is making train sets for this project. Japan will make a total of 24 sets of trains. The duration of the project is till 2024.
In this month the construction of the viaduct up to Doel Chattar will also be completed and the installation of viaduct up to Motijheel will be completed by January 2022.
