All stations of Metro rail now open

The metro rail will extend its operation hours to 8am-2pm from April 5, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) Managing Director MAN Siddique said on Thursday.

At present, the service is running from 8:30am to 12:30pm and passengers are availing the service from seven stations.

Uttara South and Shewrapara stations of the metro rail will open for commuters from today. With these, all of the nine stations on Uttara to Agargaon portion of metro rail will be functional.

At a press conference, Siddique said the performance test of the metro rail on the Agargaon-Motijheel portion will begin in July. “Hopefully, passenger service on this portion will start by December. Almost 90 to 95 per cent work of stations of this portion have been completed so far,” he said.

The physical works of this portion will be completed by July this year and the authorities will continue electric and mechanical works.

Siddique said for the construction of entrance and exit points of Secretariat station, part of the boundary wall must be demolished as 2-15 feet of space is required for this purpose. The move has already been approved.

On December 28 last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country’s first-ever elevated metro rail, setting a milestone in the country’s communication history.

She opened the 11.73km part of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6 of the metro rail project from Diabari to Agargaon by unveiling its plaque at Diabari in the city.

According to the DMTCL chief, since inauguration, they have earned Tk 6.20 crore and spent Tk 7.33 crore operating the MRT-6. A total of 10.77 lakhs passengers have availed the service.

“Of the money we spent on operation, a giant portion goes to the electric bill and other to staff salaries, maintenance, etc. We have talked to the electricity supplying authorities to provide the power at a flat rate,” he said.

About forming a special police unit for the metro rail, he said that the matter is now pending with the government.

The authorities will start beautification works by planting trees in July at medians of the Uttara-Agargaon section, he told the press conference.