City residents have put up with all sorts of inconveniences over many years while the Mass Rapid Transit Line 6 (MRT-6) was being built. But now that it is fully operational, these same residents are asking why it doesn't run 12 hours a day? What is the point of the government spending so much money and putting people through so much misery (during construction) if this mode of public transport doesn't run when people need it?
There was a flurry of activity in the run up to the general election when it had dawned upon someone at policy level that people need to be shown what progress the government had made in infrastructure. One station after another were inaugurated - much to the delight of commuters from the edges of town like Mirpur and Uttara who had their work places in the commercial and administrative hubs and the service was hugely appreciated. However, the commuters who came to work or for other purposes using MRT-6 couldn't return by it because service got suspended at 11.30am in the Agargaon to Motijheel section. But From Uttara to Agargaon, the train runs until 8 pm. Highly frustrating because people cannot commute keeping with such a ludicrous timetable set by the metro rail authorities.
The problem seems to be lying with the exercise of authority over the most important urban transportation system ever built in Dhaka. As pointed out in a recent report published in this newspaper: "A smokescreen cloaks company dilly-dallying as commuters wonder why Dhaka metro rail is not operated full time despite the opening of all its stations now. One obvious reason ostensibly is a state of confusion getting confounded among overlapping authorities over the staffing position…". Now that is a sad state of affairs.
As is now crystal clear from media reports, the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) apparently managed "partial operation of the Mass Rapid Transit Line 6 (MRT 6) with the manpower recruited in the first phase in 2019, it could not hire half the strength stipulated in the organogram recommended in 2017.Sources have said DMTCL has been trying hard to cover the time it lost in the recruitment process but there is no approved organogram for the company's own functionality, and for operation and maintenance of the under-operation metro rail."
So, commuters are now suffering for a lack of foresight of the authorities. Dhaka residents are not interested to hear excuses about why recruitment has not taken place over the last decade and which agency is not cooperating with which other agency. They want to use the metrorail to get ahead of the horrid gridlock that has consumed many hours of their lives on a daily basis for years. That's why the metro rail was envisaged and built in the first place. Excuses that the company managing metro rail doesn't have proper information about manpower or which personnel is responsible for not running the service smoothly are unacceptable.
The infrastructure is fully operational. The requisite trains are fully operational and demand for service is sky high, but yet a lack of proper planning and financial allocation for staff recruitment has restricted its full operation. Like everything else in this dysfunctional city, basic planning and execution of those plans need revisions and readjustments when they go awry. All the focus is on getting the contract out and start constructing. Recruitment will take time and Dhaka residents will have to suffer a few more months because someone in authority forgot to recruit the people necessary to run this new means of mass transportation.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
