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All nine stations of Metro Rail’s Uttara-Agargaon section will be operational soon as Kazipara and Mirpur 11 stations will be commissioned on March 15 and Uttara South and Shewrapara stations in the last week of this month.
MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, said the opening date of Uttara South and Shewrapara metro rail stations of MRT line-6 will be announced later, but it will not cross the last week.
He said by July next, metro trains will be operated on Uttara-Agargaon section in full swing from morning to midnight without any intervals. From April, the operation time will be increased gradually. Currently, metro rail service is available from morning to noon.
So far, from the partial operation, DMTCL earned Tk 4.76 crore from 7.9 lakh people who availed it. So far 16910 passengers have bought MRT pass. “We are already in breakeven position,” he claimed without providing further details.
“But we will get the actual scenario after commissioning all stations and starting operation till midnight when number of fun travelers will drop,” he said, adding that 60-70 per cent revenue will be earned by selling tickets and the rest from advertisement and Transit Oriented Development (ToD) hubs.
The authorities have already started hosting advertisements to earn money.
“We are currently doing construction work of exit-entry points at Agargaon-Motijheel part. The wiring work is also in the final stage,” the DMTCL official said.
On the Agarogaon-Matijheel section, the authorities may start performance test from the next month. This section is expected to be operational by December next.
The authorities are now focusing on operational preparation works and construction work of Kamalapur extension part. At that part, the authorities have completed 12 out of 52 piling works.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first-ever metro rail MRT-line 6 in December last year and it was opened to public on the following day. Currently, the service is available from Uttara to Agargaon.
The Metrorail project was taken up in 2012 and a loan agreement in this regard was signed with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese development cooperation agency, the following year. The main construction work of the project started in 2017.
There are a total of nine stations on the Uttara to Agargaon route: Uttara North (Diabari), Uttara Central, Uttara South, Pallabi, Mirpur 11, Mirpur 10, Kazipara, Shewrapara, and Agargaon.
There are seven stations on the Agargaon to Motijheel route: Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Kawran Bazar, Shahbagh, TSC, Press Club, and Motijheel. Also, there will be a 1.16 km extension to Kamalapur railway station.
