Staff Reporter :
Total 343 people involved with Mass Rapid Transit Line-6, the first metro rail project in the country, got infected with Covid-19 so far. None of them died.
Of them, six foreign engineers got infected recently and are taking treatment under their own arrangement, MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) — the implementing agency of the project-said on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a monthly press briefing on the project virtually. In last few months, he used to hold press conference in person but today he did it virtually due to rise in Covid-19 infection rate again.
While the locals involved with the first-track project have already started getting Covid-19 vaccine, registration of foreigners involved in the project would start from March 17, he said.
MRT-6 is being built from the capital’s Uttara third phase to Motijheel at the cost of Tk 22,000 crore. Works of the project remained halted for more than two months after the government declared shutdown in late March last year to contain Covid-19 infection.
Later, the project works got momentum gradually.
58.72 percent progress in metro rail project
Talking about the progress of the project, MAN Siddique said the overall progress of the project is 58.72 percent.
The first phase of the project, from Uttara to Agargaon, witnessed 81.42 percent progress as of February, while the second phase, from Agargaon to Motijheel, saw 54.61 percent, and the third phase, which refers to installation of the tracks and procurement of the carriages and other equipment, witnessed 49 percent progress, he said.
The first set of metro train left Port of Kobe in Japan on March 4 and is expected to reach Dhaka via Mongla port within April 23, he said.
Total 13.27 km viaduct, out of total 20.10 km, has so far been erected, he said.
