First metro train set on way to Dhaka

The first set of the metro train left the Port of Kobe in Japan on Thursday and is expected to reach Dhaka late next month.

M.A.N Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), the implementing company of the project, said: “The train left the port at 6 pm local time in Japan and 3 pm in Bangladesh time.”

The train was scheduled to leave Kobe port for Bangladesh on February 20 and reach a depot at Diabari in the capital on April 23 via Mongla port. However, it could not be sent on February 20 as the weather was not favorable, M.A.N Siddique told the media on February 28.

“We still hope the train will reach Dhaka by April 23, but it will also depend on the weather,” he told the media on Thursday. The country’s first Metrorail Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 ​​is being constructed from Uttara to Motijheel at a cost of Tk 22,000 crore.

In August 2017, DMTCL signed an agreement with the Kawasaki-Mitsubishi Consortium to build 24 sets of trains for the Metrorail. Five sets of trains were made by December last year. The second train of Metrorail is scheduled to reach the depot on June 16 and the third train on August 13.