The country's first electric metro rail is unlikely to begin operation by this December as scheduled due to the second wave of Covid-19 in Bangladesh.
MAN Siddique, managing director of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), said about 12 km of the metro rail line from Uttara to Agargaon was supposed to be inaugurated by December 2021, but nothing can be said with certainty in the current situation.
The first metro set reached Uttara depot on April 23. The second set of Metro rail under construction, known as MRT-6, will reach Mongla port on June 16. The probable date of shipment of the third and fourth metro rail sets is June 11, which might reach Bangladesh on August 13. The fifth train set scheduled to be ship from Japan on July 16 might arrive on September 17. A total of 24 sets of coaches will come from Japan.
According to authorities concerned, MRT-6 track was initially scheduled to be completed by June 2024. The deadline to complete the construction of the line to Agargaon was later moved ahead to December 2021 on the directive of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
However, that deadline was now breached due to the coronavirus pandemic, sources said.
Metro sets are scheduled to go through performance tests in August. After that, 'integrated tests' will be conducted followed by trial runs. The trains will run on all the railway lines through the depots and then also on the viaducts (railway bridge).
Earlier on May 11, the electric train was run from the workshop at Uttara and brought to the coach unloading zone. The train with a set of six coaches travelled about 500 metres from the workshop. One of their drivers of the Kawasaki Company of Japan, the manufacturer of the trains, drove the train.
Metro rails in Bangladesh will have four passenger coaches in each set, with two engines on each side. The trains will have DC 1,500 Volt power supply. These stainless steel body trains will have vertical seats with two wheelchairs on each train.
These air-conditioned coaches will have four doors on each side. The trains, with the Japanese standard security system, will have a passenger capacity of 1,738 each.
The overall progress of the construction of metro rail is 63.26 per cent so far. In the first phase, the progress of the Agargaon section's construction is 84.79 per cent. The progress of the second phase, the Motijheel section from Agargaon, is 84.79 per cent. It is being extended further from Motijheel to Kamalapur as per the instructions of the Prime Minister.
Screening of workers at the metro rail project is in action to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among the workforce. The project authorities have set up field hospitals at Gabtali and Panchabati yards. Till last April, 661 workers were diagnosed with coronavirus infection but no deaths were reported.
With the launch of metro rail, Dhaka city is expected to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 180,000 tons per year. It will reduce the 100-minute journey from Uttara to Motijheel to just 36 minutes.
