The much-awaited test run of the metro rail from Agargaon to Motijheel will begin on Friday.
"Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader will inaugurate the test run of the metro rail from Agargaon at 4pm," Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd MAN Siddique told BSS Thursday evening.
"The metro rail operation from Agargaon to Motijheel will be made open to the public from October this year," Siddique said.
He said the authorities are working to complete all related works on the MRT Line-6 within the stipulated time.
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 Dhaka. Then, the operation of the metro rail from Uttara-Agargaon was inaugurated.
Later, the authorities announced that the Agargaon-Motijheel section would be opened this December. They hope that the functioning of the metro rail from Motijheel to Kamalapur will begin in June 2025.
The metro rail is projected to carry 60,000 passengers per hour by travelling the entire route of 21.26km from Uttara to Motijheel-Kamalapur railway station in less than 40 minutes.
On August 1, 2017, the implementation agency started installing the viaduct for the rail project. Within April this year, they were scheduled to clean the occupied roads under the project areas, MAN Siddique said.
The 20.1km metro railway line lies through Uttara Phase-3 and the Bangladesh Bank in Motijheel via Pallabi, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre, Doyel Chatwar and Jatiya Press Club.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the construction work of the metro rail project, also known as the MRT Line-6, on June 24, 2016.
