A dream nears fruition as metro rail gears for opening

With news that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is all set to inaugurate the country's first ever metro rail, work is in full swing to put the finishing touches on another feather in Bangladesh's development cap.

During a ground inspection by a team from The Business Standard, the enthusiasm found was infectious.  

All the construction work of five out of nine stations on the 11.73 kilometre rail line from Uttara to Agargaon in the capital were completed a few months ago.

No other people were found in the Uttara stations apart from permanent staffers of the metro rail. 

It was dawning on all of them the momentous task they had achieved and what it would mean for the people of the nation.

More than one station operator said there was no work left in all these stations except installing some network cables for the computers and updating the softwares.

Work in stations in the southern end, especially the Shewrapara and Kazipara areas, however, are still going on. 

Hundreds of construction workers are working on the construction of the exit and entrances at these two stations. 

Escalator construction at the Shewrapara station is yet to start.

But a festive environment prevails ahead of the commercial journey of the country's first metro rail.

MAN Siddique, managing director of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the commercial rail on any day of the last week of this month.

Due to several complications, including the construction of entry and exit roads of the two stations, it may not be possible to restart the service immediately after the inauguration.

Project officials say that after the integrated test, the service operation of the metro train started at the beginning of this month. After this operation, the blank operation (moving without passengers) will start at the end of the month. 

The authorities want to start the commercial journey of the metro rail before the completion of the blank operation.

MAN Siddique told TBS that the Uttara Agargaon section has progressed 95% till the beginning of this month. The construction progress of stations in this segment is 97.60%. 

What was seen on the ground

Work on two of the four entry-exits of the Shewrapara Metro Rail Station has been completed. 

Hundreds of workers are working on the other two roads. Asked, some workers said it will take at least 15 more days to complete the work. 

They claimed that the work of this station cannot be completed within this month. 

Workers at the Kazipara Station said it will take more than a week.

Even a week ago, work was going on at the Agargaon Station for the installation of entry-exit paths, escalators and footpath development. 

At each station, the TBS team visited the entire station along with meeting the station operators. 

Station operators said that train operators get competency certificates after operating trains up to a certain distance. 

Competence of drivers is being enhanced through service operations. They also said it will be difficult to operate the service if a sufficient number of operators do not get this certificate before the inauguration.

It will, however, not be possible to provide full metro rail service immediately after the inauguration, said MAN Siddique. 

He said that the metro rail service will be provided by running a few trains in the morning and afternoon with a limited number of passengers. The service will be launched in full swing three months after the inauguration.

Professor of civil engineering department of BUET Shamsul Haque said that it would not be right to launch the service by December without taking all kinds of preparations.

He said, "The people of the country are very enthusiastic about anything, but the MRT police should have been established before the start of the metro rail. Again, time is needed for the training of those employed in this unit of the police."

He further said all civil works of the project, including the station, should be completed at any cost before the inauguration. 

He suggested strengthening the ongoing initiatives for this purpose.

Inauguration date not finalised

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the metro rail services on the Uttara to Agargaon route on any day of the last week of the current month, said MAN Siddique at a briefing at the Metro Rail Exhibition and Information Centre at Diabari Depot of the MRT in the capital on Monday prior to visit the progress of the works of the line to be inaugurated.

He said the Prime Minister's Office was yet to finalise the final date of the inauguration.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), the prime financer of the MRT-6 project, arranged the programme.

Ichiguchi Tomohide, chief representative of Jica's Bangladesh Office, and Aftab Uddin Talukder, project director for MRT-6, were present at the event. 

Representatives from the contractors of several contract packages presented contributions of their companies at the event.

Yuho Hayakawa, chief representative of JICA's Bangladesh Office, said, the MRT will ensure revolutionary change for the ordinary people in Dhaka by providing an efficient, comfortable, safe and time saving transport system. 

He said the MRT is the most reliable and the safest mode of public transport. He hoped the project will help substantially to increase labour force participation, particularly for women. 

MAN Siddique explained in detail about preparation for inauguration of the metro rail and mode of operation after the inauguration.

"We have completed the system integrated test and started the service trial on 4 December. Blank operation is to be started by 19 December," he said.

He said that the service will be started with fewer trains in the morning and afternoon. The number of trains and service time will gradually increase subject to increase in the number of passengers. 

Trains will stop for a longer time in the stations and the stop duration will reduce over time. Shorter stop times will create discomfort for the passengers initially.

In 2012, the mass rapid transit (MRT) Line 6 project worth Tk22,000 crore was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to develop the 20.1km long metro rail from Uttara to Motijheel. 

The cost of the project rose to Tk33,472 crore after including another 1.16 km extension from Motijheel to Kamalapur.

The metro line will be able to transport nearly five lakh passengers a day or 16,000 per hour in any one direction. 

Speeds up to 100km per hour will reduce the Uttara- Motijheel travel time to 40 minutes from the current 2.5 hours. A train will take 17 minutes to reach Agargaon from Uttara.