Staff Reporter :
The fare of Metro Rail (MRT Line-6) has been fixed at Tk 5 per km, but the minimum fare will be Tk 20.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader stated it while inaugurating the Metro Rail Exhibition and Information Centre at the Uttara Depot on Tuesday.
Passenger will have to pay Tk 100 from Uttara to Kamlapur, while war wounded freedom fighters will be allowed to travel free of cost, showing their IDs.
Obaidul Quader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the Metro Rail on December 16.
He also said that those who would travel weekly or monthly there will be special discounts on travels.
Asked whether students would get any discount on Metro Rail, the minister said a decision
will be taken in this regard later on. The government has set a December deadline to inaugurate the metro train service from Uttara to Agargaon. The remaining stretch of the metro — from Agargaon to Motijheel — will be in next year.
Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki, JICA’s Chief Representative in Bangladesh Yuho Hayakawa, Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary M Amin Ullah Noori and Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) Managing Director MAN Siddique were present.
On the other hand, a voluntary organsation for road safety ‘Safe the Road’ has urged the authority for reconsidering the fixed fare of metro rail.
In a press note it said this fare will make burden to all.
Addressing a press conference in Dhaka on August 22 last, DMTCL MD MAN Siddique said a single train is supposed to ply after three and a half minutes on Metro Rail. However, initially, a train would ply on after 10 minutes.
He said 10 sets of trains (six compartments in each set) have been readied. The trains will ply after Fazar prayers to 12 at midnight every day.
It is learnt that Metro Rail will run on from Uttara to Agargaon in the capital under the first phase. Nine stations of the route have already been constructed.
The formal trial run of Metro Rail began on August 29 last year.
