DMTCL wants Tk5,000cr more

The Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, the implementing agency for the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT Line-6) aka Metrorail, has submitted a proposal for an additional Tk 5,000 crore to complete the mega project.

“We have demanded the additional amount for land acquisition and creating passengers’ facilities at the stations mainly,” DMTCL Managing Director MAN Siddique said at a press briefing on Thursday.

DMTCL organized the virtual briefing to celebrate the completion of the viaduct installation from Uttara to Motijheel.

MAN Siddique also expressed his hope that at the first phase of inauguration Metrorail will run from Uttara to Agargaon as per their commitment in December this year.

“Land acquisition was a major challenging task at the beginning of the project construction. Now it would be easier to acquire land at station area as the construction have completed”.

“It is not any fault, it is a strategy that many developed countries follow,” the managing director added.

He said that they have already appointed 60 per cent of manpower for operating the Metrorail and continued trained them up in home and abroad.

The total Metrorail route spans 20.10 kilometres from Uttara to Motijheel. It will have 16 stations on its way.

The project started in 2012 while construction began on June 26, 2016 at a cost of Tk 21,985 crore.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding the project in association with the Bangladesh government.

Once completed, the train will travel the 20.10-kilometre route in 38 minutes, carrying 60,000 passengers at a time, claimed project officials.

Metro rail's entire structure becomes visible

Bangladesh’s first metro rail on a 20.1 km-route from Uttara to Motijheel became completely visible on Thursday after installation of the last girder of the viaduct. The milestone was achieved at 11.14 am today when workers successfully installed the last span of the viaduct between the pillars no 582 and 583 in front of Jatiya Press Club.

MAN Siddique, managing director at Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd was present virtually during the installation work. The overall progress of the Metro Rail is now 74 per cent, officials said.  The original length of the metro rail route was 20.1 km from Uttara to Motijheel, but it has now been extended by 1.16km to Kamalapur Railway Station.