State-owned Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has signed two separate deals worth around Tk 40 billion on package 5 and 6 of the much-hyped metro rail project.
Under the two deals, a total of seven metro rail stations and an 8.1-kilometre viaduct will be constructed from Agargaon to Motijheel in the city via Karwan Bazar.
Of the two, a Tk 18.55 billion deal was signed between DMTCL and Tekken Corporation-Abdul Monem Limited-Abenikko JV for the construction of a 3.2-kilometre viaduct and three metro stations from Agargaon to Karwan Bazar.
Simultaneously, a Tk 23.32 billion deal was signed between DTMCL and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Company Limited for the construction of a 4.9-kilometre viaduct and four metro stations in between Karwan Bazar and Motijheel.
The deals were formally inked at a signing ceremony held at a city hotel on Monday.
The government is currently looking to fast-track this flagship project aimed at giving a major uplift to the chaotic mass transportation system in the city.
"Now our target is to inaugurate the route from Uttara to Agargaon by December 2019 and to Motijheel by December 2020," Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said after the deal-signing event.
"The original deadline for the mega project was 2024, but we will finish it well before that deadline," he added.
Earlier in December 2012, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the metro rail project costing Tk 220 billion.
Later in February 2013, the government signed a deal with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the implementation of the metro rail scheme.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the metro rail route on June 26, 2016.
Later on August 02 in 2017, the construction of the first phase of the elevated railway (viaduct) and nine stations was inaugurated in the capital.
Once completed, the service is expected to carry 60,000 passengers per hour. The 20-kilometre long metro rail route will have 16 stations at Uttara, Mirpur, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Sonargaon Hotel, Shahbagh, Doel Chattar and Topkhana Road.
The Japanese government through JICA will provide Tk 166 billion in loan out of the total project cost of Tk 220 billion. The interest rate of this JICA loan will be 0.01 per cent.
Managing Director of DMTCL MAN Siddique and Chief Representative of JICA in Bangladesh Takatoshi Nishikata, among others, also spoke on the occasion.
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