The installation of railway tracks of Metro Rail-6 from Uttara to Agargaon will start within weeks. The authority has already completed all kinds of preparations and aim to begin the installations at the end of this month. “Already the rail tracks have reached the main depot at Uttara. Now, we are taking final preparation for installation of the tracks over viaducts. Hopefully, the rail tracks will start becoming visible by December,” managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DTMCL) MAN Siddique told Bangladesh Post.
“The machineries for installing the tracks like cranes and other equipment have also reached. Now 60 per cent progress of the project has been completed,” he said, adding that electrical and mechanical works for the 11.37km Uttara-Agargaon metro rail track will also start at the same time.
Now the authority is carrying out necessary constructions at the main depot at Uttara, he added. “Construction of stations at both the ends and other places is also ongoing. If everything goes as per schedule, we hope to complete the project by June 2020,” he added.
Meanwhile, the construction of Uttara-Kamalapur 21.1km metro rail project is scheduled to end by the same time. The government has decided to open it after completing total construction from Uttara to Motijheel marking 50 years of liberation on December 16 in 2021, he added.
City commuters will be able to go their respective destinations smoothly traveling by the metro rail. However, the whole of Dhaka city will be brought under the metro rail network. Metro Rail Line-6 consists of 17 elevated stations each 180 m long with 21.1 km of electricity-powered light rail tracks, and projected to serve more than 60,000 passengers per hour from both sides with waiting time of approximately 43 seconds.
The metro rail will have 17 stations – at Uttara North, Central Uttara, Uttara South, Pallabi, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-10, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Bijoy Sharani, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbag, Dhaka University, the secretariat, Motijheel and Kamlapur.
The metro will take 40 minutes to reach Kamlapur from Uttara. The station will be high as a three-storey building and will be accessed by escalators and lifts. Ticket counter and other facilities will be available at the second floor. The authorities said 12 trains will run on the routes.
As part of the government’s plan to free the capital of nagging traffic congestion, five rail routes will be constructed in the city’s different areas in phases by 2030. JICA has agreed to finance the project at 0.01% interest rate payable in a period of 40 years, sources said.
Once the metro rail is implemented, it will be the most time-efficient, reliable, safe, comfortable and environment-friendly solution to the severe traffic congestion. It will also transform Dhaka into a more active, commuter-friendly, and sustainable city, experts said.
Of total cost Tk 22000 crore, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will give Tk 16595 crore while the rest of the fund will come from the government exchequer. The cost of the metro rail has increased of Tk 1505 crore. The implementation agency working behind Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) is working restlessly in a bid to unveil the Uttara-Agargaon section of the project.
Sources said, the inauguration of the first metro rail of the country was scheduled to take place in 2024, but through special arrangements of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, it is expected to be inaugurated from Uttara to Agargaon portion by December 2019.
Earlier, JICA conducted a primary survey and feasibility study on the city’s 20-year-long Revised Strategic Transport (RSTP) project undertaken by the government. In 2012, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project. A loan agreement between Bangladesh Government and JICA was signed in January 2013.
