Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has the slowest traffic flow in the world as it dropped from 21km per hour in 2007 to 4.8km per hour in 2022, according to a recent study conducted by National Bureau of Economic Research in the US. It has exposed the bitter truth that the projects taken so far to keep traffic pace apparently failed to yield noticeable results over the years.
Commuters face traffic congestion from morning to late night and spend hours in vehicles to reach destinations while office commuting in the morning and return journey turn into nightmare for many, almost every day.
To ease city commuting, the government came up with plans with six metro rail routes as part of the Strategic Transport Plan outlined by the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) while the first section of Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 or MRT Line-6 from Uttara to Agargaon commenced commercial operation in December last year. The Agargaon to Motijheel section is ready now and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday. It will start commercial operation Sunday.
Once the section becomes operational from Uttara to Motijheel, it will save around Tk 3,500 crore annually in terms of travel time and vehicle operation costs. It will reduce the number of other vehicles significantly and cut 2.02 lakh tonnes of carbon emission annually as well, metro rail authorities said.
The country loses Tk 33,888 crore annually due to severe traffic congestion and its impacts on the capital. Once the MRT-6 is operational, it would save Tk 8.38 crore in travel time cost and Tk 1.18 crore in vehicle operational cost daily, meaning Tk 3,489.40 crore would be saved annually, according to the DMCTL authorities.
The authorities claimed that building a total of 130km metro rail network for the capital and adjacent areas by 2030 as per the plan will create jobs threefold by developing forward and backward linkage industries and services.
Transport experts said that the Uttara to Agargaon has been providing tremendous support to the commuters already as it took only 17 minutes travel time including stoppages at nine stations. Commuters never had travels this fast in the past. As a result, metro rail sees a crowd of passengers from morning to night. But people mostly living or working at Uttara, Pallabi, Mirpur, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon got the advantage while passengers in other parts of the city are still facing gridlocks on the roads.
Starting from November 5, commuting from Uttara to business hub Motijheel will be easier. People living or offices at Uttara, Pallabi, Mirpur, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University, Press Club and Motijheel and its adjacent areas will directly benefit. However, they will need to wait three more months to get the total benefit as initially three stations on the newly inaugurated route will open.
MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, which is the implementing agency of metro rail projects, said that metro rail service on November 4 will be suspended to facilitate the inauguration programme. From the next day, rail services between Agargaon and Motijheel will run for four hours from 7:30am to 11:30am, while the Uttara-Agargaon service will run from 7:30am to 8:30pm.
After three months, trains will be operating simultaneously from both Uttara and Motijheel end.
Initially, on the Agargaon-Motijheel section trains will run in every ten minutes and stop at three stations--Farmgate, Bangladesh Secretariat, and Motijheel. Dhaka University station will be operational by the end of November, while the remaining stations--Bijoy Sarani, Kawran Bazar, Shahbagh will open within three months, he said.
After opening of all the stations on the total route, the journey between Uttara to Motijheel will take only 38 minutes. DMTCL hoped that five lakh people will avail the service per day.
About the inaugural programme, he said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the service at Agargaon station on November 4 and then took a train to Motijheel to join a ceremonial event hosted at the concourse level of the station.
The premier will also inaugurate the construction work of the MRT Line-5 (Northern route) and unveil the inaugural plaque of the MRT line-6 from Motijheel station. She will deliver her speech at a civil society gathering at the event there.
The cost of the country’s first-ever metro rail project stands at Tk 33,472 crore. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided Tk 19,719 crore in the form of loan to support the project while the government of Bangladesh funded the remaining amount.
At the beginning, the estimated cost of this project was about Tk 21,000 crore. The cost has increased due to the construction of an additional 1.6 km section from Motijheel to Kamalapur, the acquisition of new land for each station, and addition of various new facilities.
The main construction work of the project started in 2017. The project is scheduled to be completed by December 2025. The electricity-run trains are expected to change the transportation system of the city drastically.
When the work on all six metro rail routes will be completed, it would carry 50.4 lakh passengers daily.
