Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said that the fares of metro rail are within the reach of people.
“People have to pay at least Tk 20 for a rickshaw ride. In that sense, the fare of metro rail is okay,” the minister said in reply to questions from journalists at the Secretariat on Thursday.
“There are differences between the metro rail of Dhaka and Kolkata. Our metro rail is better than those of Thailand and Indonesia. Dhaka’s metro rail looks good,” he added.
The doors of the much-awaited metro rail finally opened to the public on Thursday, a day after the first-ever elevated rail service was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Mentioning that the rest of the work of MRT-6 will be completed within the next year, Quader said, “Besides, we’ll also start the works of MRT-1 and MRT-5 under the rule of the Awami League (AL) government.
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“Both of these MRT lines will cover an area of 31 kilometres in total, among which 21km will be underground and 10km will be an expressway.”
A feasibility study is being conducted in Chattogram to find out if a metro rail service can be launched there, Quader added.
Replying to a question, Quader, also the General Secretary of the ruling AL, said that his party leaders and activists will be guarding the streets on the day of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) pre-scheduled mass procession on December 30.
“Will we eat lollipops while BNP activists create violence? We’ll be on the streets tomorrow, like we were on December 10,” Quader said.
Quader further said that AL will take part in the next general elections whether EVM is used or not.
“We want EVMs to be used in the next election. However, we’ll accept the decision of the Election Commission (EC) in this regard. Whatever happens, we’ll participate in the next elections,” Quader said.
