Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
A trial run of the much-awaited Metro Rail will be held in June next year and it will be ready for commercial run by 2021, officials said.
They said the trial run of the Metro Rail would be held from Uttara to Agargaon.
The state-run Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) is implementing the project at an estimated cost of Tk 22,000 crore.
The company has completed some 46 per cent of the total work at Uttara-Agargaon part.
“The 12-kilometer Metro Rail between Uttara and Agargaon section has so far seen 46 per cent progress. The 5.86 kilometer viaduct of the section has become visible,” Managing Director of DMTCL M A N Siddique told The New Nation yesterday.
He also said that 30 per cent of the construction work from Uttara to Motijheel section of the 20-kiolomtere-long elevated metro-rail project has been completed.
When asked, M A N Siddique said, “The construction work of the country’s first elevated metro rail system in Dhaka city under Mass-Rapid Transport (MRT) Line-6 is going on in full swing with a target to open for public by December 16, 2021.”
The Metro-Rail from Uttara to Motijheel will be inaugurated in December 2021 on the occasion of 50th anniversary of independence.
Project officials said the rail tract on the viaduct between Uttara and Agargaon section would be set up next month along with electric lines.
“80 per cent of the rail tract has already been arrived in Bangladesh and their erection will take three to four months,” a project official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said, currently 11.73-kilomtere viaduct and nine stations are being constructed from Uttara to Agargaon. The land development work of depot area has already been completed.
The 20-kilomtere Metro-Rail project is being constructed in eight packages.
Meanwhile, the DMTCL has sought Tk 15.09 billion additional funds for land acquisition and for training of the officials concerned.
Recently, it sent a letter to the Planning Commission (PC), seeking the additional fund.
The MRT-6 project was approved in July 2012. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing loan amounting to nearly US$ 2.10 billion for it.
The project was taken with high promises of saving the city dwellers from the menace of traffic congestion.
The residents of capital Dhaka are eagerly awaiting timely completion of the project.
