Airport to Kamalapur in 25 minutes by 2026

Citizens of Dhaka city will be able to commute between Airport and Kamalapur areas in 25 minutes after the country’s first-ever underground metro rail comes into commercial operation by 2026.

This project, known as MRT Line-1, will save 85 per cent of the travel time currently commuters need to spend on this route. Besides, it will also cut down travel time on the Purbachal-Natun Bazar route and Purbachal-Kamalapur route by 70 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively, according to project officials.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the project’s construction work this Thursday. The work will start by developing a depot at Pitalganj village in Narayanganj.

The 31.24-km-long metro rail project will cost Tk 52,561.43 crore.

MAN Siddique, managing director of project implementation authority Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), said that the premier will unveil the foundation plaque at 11am.

Thousands of people are also expected to attend the grand ceremony she will join later at the Brahmankhali High School ground.

About the underground metro’s construction system, he said the rail line will be placed at a minimum depth of 30-70 metres.

“This project will not need relocation of any utility lines as the lines are placed at the depth of a maximum of 10 metres in the capital,” he told reporters at his office on Tuesday.

The underground metro line will have two parts — around 19.87km from Dhaka airport, which includes 16.4km underground, and around 11.36km from Natun Bazar to Purbachal, which is elevated, he said.

The Airport-Kamalapur route will have 12 underground stations. Natun Bazar and Purbachal will have seven stations in between and it will take 20 minutes to travel.

According to project documents, the MRT Line-1 underground stations will have three floors. The ticket counter and other facilities will be on the first basement level. The platform will be on the second level.

The ticket counter and platform for the elevated station will be on the third floor. Both elevated and underground stations will have lifts, stairs and escalators.

The DMTCL have signed contracts with Japan’s Tokyo Construction Company Ltd and Bangladesh’s Max Infrastructure Ltd to implement the project in 12 packages.

An agreement was signed with a consulting firm on October 23, 2012, to supervise the construction of MRT Line-1. Another agreement was signed for package CP-1, related to the depot’s construction, on November 23, 2022.

A total of 12.9725 acres of land in Pitalganj and Brahmankhali Mauza of Narayanganj’s Rupganj upazila have been acquired for the construction of the depot and depot access corridor of MRT Line-1. Tk 140 crore has been given as compensation to the landowners.