Anisur Rahman Khan :
Work on the country’s first metro rail construction project is going on in full swing and the project is expected to be inaugurated by December this year, aiming at ridding the city dwellers of traffic jams.
Meanwhile, the construction work on the 11.73 km from Diabari in Uttara to Agargaon is almost completed and rest of the project work is underway.
However, the Metro Rail Fare Fixation Committee has been proposed to fix the fare of the much-awaited Metrorail Line-6 for the commuters of the capital Dhaka – at Tk 2.40 per kilometer. With this, the proposed fare has been made at a minimum of Tk 8 and a maximum of Tk 48.
Sources said, further scrutinization will be done to finalize the fare as the committee has been reformed on March 16. Representatives of BRTA, BRTC, DTCA, DMTCL, Bangladesh Railway and Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) have been included in the fare fixation committee.
“The estimated cost of the second amendment proposal of the metro rail project stands at 33 thousand 471 crore 92 lakh taka. Of this, Tk 19,675.70 crore will be spent from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan. Of the total amount, Tk 13 thousand 796 crore 29 lakh will be spent from government funds,” MAN Siddique, Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) told the New Nation on Wednesday.
The loan has to be repaid in 30 years including a grace period of 10 years with an interest rate of 0.70 percent, he said in reply to a query.
According to Siddique, “the JICA is providing another Tk 1,350.39 crore for the construction of 21.28 km metro rail from Uttara Diabari to Motijheel. At present JICA loan of Tk 16,594.59 crore is running for the project. As a result, the total amount of JICA loan for the ongoing Metrorail project stands at Tk 17,944 crore.”
When asked regarding metro rail fare, he declined to comment in this regard and said the Metro Rail Fare Fixation Committee will finalise the matter.
According to the initial plan, the duration of the ongoing project from Uttara to Motijheel has been targeted till December 2024 and the government had approved Tk 21,985 crore initially.
However, the work of the project has increased as the metro rail route extended from Motijheel to Kamalapur. That is why the cost of the project has also been increased.
This extension was done with the permission of JICA and the amount of work from Motijheel to Kamalapur has increased so JICA is giving additional loan for the project, sources said.
The initial duration of the project under implementation of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) was from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2024.
It will take another one year and six months to complete the project work due to the increase of work, sources said.
According to sources, it has been proposed to extend the project work till June 2025.
The department concerned asked for revising the project proposal and said it is needed land acquisition to construct additional 1.16km of metro rail route from Motijheel to Kamalapur.
Besides, it is needed to allocate lands for transit oriented development (TOD) to operate trains, sources said.
Time and cost of the project implementation has increased due to constructions and setting up of lifts, escalators and stairs at the station for the passengers, the source added.
Besides, acquisition of new land is needed for construction of a Transport Oriented Hub (TOD) and Station Plaza at Uttara Center Station.
DMTCL also cited the customs and VAT sector as one of the reasons behind the increase in the cost of construction of Metrorail.
The agency added that a large portion of the project’s expenditure goes to paying taxes to the government for the purchase of various products, construction materials and services.
Apart from this, there is a huge cost behind land acquisition. According to the revised DPP proposal, about 23 per cent of the total cost of the project will be spent on customs and land acquisition purposes.
