Entire 20.1km metro rail viaduct completed

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) completed constructing the entire 20.1km viaduct of the metro rail from Uttara to Motijheel in the capital on Thursday.

The last segment was finished around 11:15am at the National Press Club area connecting piers 582 and 583, making the elevated metro rail route completely visible.

DMTCL Managing Director MAN Siddique at a virtual press briefing said tracks would now be set up gradually on the viaduct for the movement of trains.

Bangladesh is constructing its first-ever metro rail connecting Uttara Phase-3 and the Bangladesh Bank in Motijheel via Pallabi, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University’s Teacher-Student Centre, Doyel Chattar, and Topkhana Road.

Siddique said DMTCL had submitted a proposal seeking an additional Tk 5,000 crore to complete the mega project.

“We have demanded this amount for land acquisition and creating passenger facilities at the stations,” he said.

DMTCL started building the viaduct on August 1 in 2017.

Siddique also expressed his hope that in the first phase of its inauguration, the metro rail will run from Uttara to Agargaon from December this year.

“Land acquisition was a major challenge at the beginning of the project. Now it would be easier to acquire land at the station areas as the viaduct construction has been completed,” he said.