The metro rail service in Dhaka will be suspended for two days starting from Saturday, with Friday being the weekly closure day.
During this temporary suspension, authorities will conduct system integration tests on the Uttara-Agargaon and Agargaon-Motijheel sections, according to MAN Siddique, the managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), who made the announcement on Tuesday.
Starting from the following Monday, metro rail services will resume on the Uttara-Agargaon route as usual, he added. Siddique also mentioned that the Agargaon-Motijheel section, currently under construction, is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, tentatively on October 29, with the official date yet to be announced.
Initially, trains on this section will run on a limited schedule from 8 am to 11 am, with both operating hours and the number of stoppages gradually increasing. Following the inauguration, three stations—Farmgate, Bangladesh Secretariat, and Motijheel—will open to the public, and shortly after that, Dhaka University station will commence operations. Currently, trains run on the Uttara-Agargaon section from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
Siddique also outlined future plans: "Within three months, seven stations will be opened on the entire Agargaon-Motijheel route, and the operation hours will be from 8 am to 8 pm. After three months, the operation time will be extended, and there will be no off days."
On December 28 last year, Bangladesh entered a new era as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's first-ever elevated metro rail in the capital. Authorities subsequently announced the opening of the Agargaon-Motijheel section in 2023, with hopes for the entire route, from Motijheel to Kamalapur railway station, to become operational by June 2025.
The metro rail is designed to carry 60,000 passengers per hour along its 21.26 km route, connecting Uttara to Motijheel-Kamalapur railway station in less than 40 minutes.
On August 1, 2017, the implementation agency began installing the viaduct for the rail project, which spans 20.1 km through Uttara Phase-3 and the Bangladesh Bank in Motijheel, passing via Pallabi, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre, Doyel Chattar, and Jatiya Press Club.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated the construction work of the metro rail project, also known as the MRT Line-6, on June 24, 2016.
