Overhead train ride now on entire north-south route

Another milestone in communications is reached in Bangladesh with the Agargaon-Motijheel metro-rail mainline opening today for commuters to cross 20-kilometre corridor in 31 minutes on maiden electric train over crowded Dhaka.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to ride a decorated train at the MRT-6 Agargaon station at 2:30 pm and get down at Motijheel station as part of the inauguration ceremony.

Bangladesh stepped into speedy electric-commuting era with the prime minister having opened the maiden Uttara North-Agargaon part of the MRT 6 on December 28

Like at the previous function, the prime minister would flag off an empty train from Agargaon station and get on the next train to travel to Motijheel business hub of the country over the capital city almost crippled with traffic jams.

After reaching the Motijheel station, she would unveil a plaque and address a gathering of over 200 invited guests.

On this occasion, she would also inaugurate physical work on another 20km MRT, known as MRT 5 North, to be built up from Hemayetpur on the city outskirts to Vatara from the same venue. This part of the MRT will have 13.5-km underground and 6.5-km elevated railroads.

Later, the prime minister is expected to address a public meeting at Arambagh.

Officials have said after the PM's inauguration of MRT 6, commercial operation of the entire 20.1km route from both sides in Uttara and Motijheel will start at 7:30 am tomorrow (Sunday).

The train operation from the two ends will continue every day till 11:30 am with stoppage at Farmate and Secretariat stations along with nine other stations in the Uttara-Agargaon part.

After closure of the service on Motijheel-Agargaon at 11:30am, they said, train operation on 11.73-km route from Agargaon to Uttara North will continue as usual, till 8.00 pm. Only MRT or Rapid Pass holders having balance in the cards can use return trains from Agargaon to Uttara till 8:30pm.

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) has calculated the timing of the operation of entire route with total 12 stations as 31 minutes with 10-minute gap between the two trains, which is called headway.

DMTCL Managing Director MAN Siddique says after the launch of all 16 stations, travel time on 20km stretch will be 38 minutes, which, however, can be reduced through reducing headway time and train-door opening and-closing time gaps.

"We will also gradually adjust the time of the Agargaon-Motijheel part with the Agargaon-Uttara North part in next three months," says the MD.

Since the launch of the 11.73-km stretch of MRT 6, the DMTCL has got on average 90,000 passengers, which is, however, much behind the target of 60,000 passengers supposed to cross the corridor per hour from one side at 100km speed.

Faisal Ahmed, a regular passenger from Uttara to Agargaon, talked with the FE writer at Agargaon station on Thursday. He said since the opening, he has availed the metro rail as his shop is at BCS Bhaban.

However, Munni Begum takes the ride from Pallabi to Agargaon occasionally, since the opening, as she often faces difficulty in getting available transport from Agargaon to go to her office at Motijheel.

Another passenger who also uses the MRT from Agargaon to Uttara alleges that though at least 30 minutes are saved in MRT, he, however, remains stuck in traffic tailbacks after Uttara North for another 30 minutes to go to his office.

Iqbal Habib, an architect and green activist, says the MRT-6 opening is "no doubt a paradigm shift in making public transport people-friendly". But he appears critical of not taking enough measures to facilitate commuters with multimodal transportation in addition to the MRT.

The company started construction of the MRT 6 after a feasibility study done under the Dhaka Urban Transport Study (DHUTS) in 2011 as a follow-up to a 25-year transport plan titled Strategic Transport Plan (STP).

Although the study selected the MRT 6 with the finalizing of the route from Pallabi to Saidabad as the first among three MRTs proposed in the STP at the time, the route, however, faced continuous problems "for a lack of cooperation by different quarters, including Bangladesh Army and Air Force authorities and Dhaka South City Corporation".

The MRT-6 corridor has been diverted from various points, including Pallabi, Bijoy Sarani and Banga Bazar, for not getting clearance from authorities concerned. Both sides of the route have also to shift towards Uttara-3rd phase and Motijheel near Bangladesh Bank.

Finally alignment of the MRT 6 was fixed from Uttara to Motijheel proposing stations in Uttara North, Uttara Centre, Uttara South, Pallabi, Mirpur 11, Mirpur 10, Kazipara, Shawrapapa, Agargaon, Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Kawran Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University, Secretariat and Motijheel.

Later, DMTCL decided to add Kamalapur station after finding no ways to take the MRT towards Saidabad from Motijheel area increasing total length of the corridor to 21.26 km.

With technical and financial support of Japan International Cooperation Agency, the state-owned company launched the physical work after completing the detailed design in 2016.

According to the development-project proposal, the MRT-6 project is supposed to be completed in 2024, with the project cost escalating to Tk 334.72 billion--a 52-percent increase from Tk 219.85 billion in July 2022.

The first DPP of the MRT-6 project named Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project was approved by the ECNEC on December 18, 2012.

The state-owned company, DMTCL, was formed to plan, construct, operate and maintain the city metro rails in 2016 when the number of MRTs was, however, increased to six after revision of the STP in 2015 following increase in daily trips to 29 million.

Consultancy sources have said the MRT 6 has been proposed to construct as elevated way due to being first-ever metro rail in what is a usual practice in all cases in the world.

Though it is alleged that stations within one-kilometre stretch is unable to take the speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour of the metro rail, a consultant says the MRT-6 train touches 100 kms between Mirpur 10 and 11 and Kazipara. He told the FE that short distance between stations is not factor for maintaining the speed, rather curved line. Due to curve at Farmgate and after Dhaka University, 100-km-speed limit could not be maintained.

"There is difference between traditional and electric train as it can speed up to 100 kms per hour and break within short distance," he added.

However, it is expected the faster train, speedy train is to reduce the cost and travel time of the commuters significantly. It is claimed in the study that travel-time cost and vehicle-operation cost after the MRT operation are expected to save Tk 838 million and Tk 118 million daily.

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