Subway construction to begin in March ‘22

The construction work of the country’s first underground metro rail is expected to begin in March 2022, more than a year after it was scheduled to start.

The physical work was originally set to start in December 2020. As the Covid-19 pandemic made it impossible, the starting time was pushed to June 2021. But that has proved to be impossible as well because of the pandemic.

MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL), which is implementing the project, shared the development with reporters on Thursday.

Once the underground line, formally known as Mass Rapid Transit Line-1 or MRT-1, is up and running, the trains will move at 90kmph speed and be able to carry 800,000 passengers daily.

It will take only 24 minutes to travel from Dhaka airport to Kamalapur apart from the break at 12 underground stations on the proposed route (Airport-Kuril-Natunbazar-Badda-Rampura-Malibagh-Rajarbag-Kamalapur).

A total of 25 trains, each of which will carry 3,088 passengers, will operate on this route.

The 31.24km MRT Line-1 will have two parts, around 19.87km from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kamalapur with 16.4km underground lines and around 11.36km elevated lines from Notun Bazar to Purbachal.

Travel on the elevated part will take 20 minutes as the trains will move at 100kmph apart from the breaks at seven stations.

There will be a 2.5-minute break between each train on the Airport-Kamalapur route and the wait time between trains on the Notun Bazar-Purbachal route will be 4.4-minute.

Tender floated

Addressing a virtual press briefing Thursday, MAN Siddique said they on June 10 floated a tender for the construction work. “However, we hope to manage the delay by multitasking and finish the project by December 2026.”

“The project will be implemented under 12 packages, of which, land development at the depot will be the first one,” he said.

Project Director Md Saidul Hoque said: “Some 15 bidders have purchased the tender documents in order to submit by September. We need at least six months to issue a work order after evaluating their proposals.”

“Around 72pc work for drawing detail design and 74pc of land accusation has finished. Detail design will be completed by June 2022,” he added.

However, they did not disclose the tender value of Phase 1.

According to project officials, the depot will be built at Pitalganj in Narayangaj's Rupganj. The Notun Bazar station will serve as an interchange. A total of 30 acres of land will be acquired for this purpose.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council in October last year had approved the Tk 52,561.43 crore project to be implemented within September 2019 and December 2026.

The government will provide Tk 13,111crore and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will fund Tk 39,450 crore.

Stations

As per the plan, the Airport-Kamalapur route will have 12 underground stations — airport, Terminal-3 of the airport, Khilkhet, Jamuna Future Park, Notun Bazar, Uttar Badda, Badda, Hatirjheel East, Rampura, Malibagh, Rajarbagh, and Kamalapur.

The Purbachal part will have stations at Notun Bazar, Bashundhara R/A, Police Officers' Housing Society, Mastul, Purbachal West, Purbachal Centre, and Purbachal East.

Less suffering

The authorities have been planning to use modern technology not only for sustainability but also to lessen the people’s suffering usually caused by such massive projects.

“We will start the construction work at a time at four points — Kamalapur, Kuril, Notun Bazar and Dhaka airport,” said Saidul Hoque.

He said four modern boring machines will be used for underground excavation and some machines will be used to build the underground channels at a time.

As most of the construction will happen underground, the project will not hamper vehicular movement on the roads and will not cause suffering to people, he said.

“Similarly, underground utility lines won’t be disturbed as the boring work will happen at least 10 meters under the surface level,” Saidul added.

“However, the stations will be built through an open cut process and that will interrupt traffic but it won’t take more than six months,” he said.