Home ›› 26 Aug 2022 ›› Front
The metro rail in the capital will have minimum possibilities of facing technical faults and passengers will be evacuated safely even if that happens, the authorities said.
They said the trains have automatic operation and protection systems which will move a dysfunctional vehicle to the next station if there is a power or mechanical failure.
Besides, other trains on the line will stop automatically and wait before the problem is solved.
The metro rail implementation and operating authority, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), has formed two wings – operation and maintenance. Maintenance employees will be responsible for ensuring uninterrupted services.
DMTCL Managing Director MAN Siddique said, “Every set of train will be washed and cleaned at the washing plant before starting the day’s service. Then it will be sent to the workshop.”
There will be route maintenance for every train every day at the workshop where technicians will check engines and other components. If all components are found okay, the vehicle will be sent for the day’s operation.
If the technicians feel further maintenance is necessary, they will do that quickly and send the train for operation. But if heavy maintenance is required, the train will be sent to the heavy maintenance shed.
“From Uttara to Kamalapur, we will need to operate 20 sets of trains. We have four more trains on standby at the shed to replace the one undergoing heavy maintenance,” Siddique said.
“We believe no train will break down due to any sudden technical faults. But it can happen due to electrical faults,” he said.
In that case, the train will automatically run to the next station. The doors will open automatically and passengers will get down and wait for the problem to be fixed, he added.
Power supply
Power for the metro rail will be supplied from three grids. Besides, there will be a separate regular line which is mainly used to supply electricity to houses and offices.
“There will be six power lines with a circuit system. If any line faces disruptions, an alternative line will activate automatically,” Siddique said.
“If the national grid fails, the train will stop moving. But a power outage at the national grid does not usually last long; maybe five to 10 minutes,” he added.
“In each station, there are dedicated electricity lines as well. If those fail, there is an automatic generator which will activate.
“This generator has a backup generator as well. These two generators will supply power by rotation if electricity fails,” Siddique explained.
The final stage of metro rail testing before starting passenger services will begin in November.
The testing, known as the blank test, will be conducted for 15-20 days. After that, the Uttara-Agargaon segment of the Mass Rapid Transit line-6 (MRT-6) will be fully ready for passenger services in December.
Initially, 10 sets of trains will run at 10-minute intervals, which will gradually be reduced to three minutes and thirty seconds. Trains will run from the Fajr prayer time till midnight, according to the authorities.
DMTCL is now setting up simulators, and driving tests on those will start on October 1.
The 20.15km MRT-6 is being built from Uttara to Motijheel at a cost of Tk 22,000 crore. The work on the Agargaon-Motijheel segment is expected to be completed by 2023.
The MRT-6 line was recently extended to Kamalapur. The metro rail is designed to carry 60,000 people per hour from Uttara to Motijheel in less than an hour.
The current overall progress of the Uttara-Agargaon segment, which will be opened for passengers in December, is 93.86 per cent.
