Metro-rail depot land development work to set up necessary infrastructures at Uttara 3rd phase in the city has come to an end a year before its deadline, officials said.
They said it has been finished by doing work in three shifts covering day and night as well as increasing necessary manpower for speeding up the process of setting up the first metro-rail in the city.
"The work has ended on January 31, but it will be officially announced completed next week," said a senior official of the project.
He also said the depot land development work, awarded on March 29, 2016, was supposed to be completed by the end of this year.
Development of the Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 (MRT-6) project is under implementation to operate elevated metro-rail from Uttara 3rd phase to Motijheel.
Its depot land development work was undertaken following finding of soil condition unfit for erecting necessary infrastructures including MRT workshops, administrative building, washing plant and rolling stocks.
As the land was in low-lying area, the then project office conducted three studies by different organisations, including Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), to take the decision on land development package to save the infrastructures from vibration that is expected in MRT operation.
Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) awarded the work to Tokyu Construction Company Limited at Tk 560 million to make around 50 acres of land fit for taking load of infrastructures for 100 years.
According to DMTCL, dynamic compaction and sand piling compaction were done through compaction of land with sand and soil layer by layer.
DMTCL Managing Director M A N Siddique, however, said the contractor will work till June next year to monitor the development, mainly impact of excessive rain during the next rainy season.
He said the contractor will take necessary measures, if any change in soil layers is detected during and after the rainy season.
The MD also said the land has already been handed over to the contractor, which was awarded for developing necessary infrastructures on the depot land.
"They have already started piling work after completing test pile," he told the FE.
DMTCL has set up 18 underground cameras at different points of the depot land to monitor daily change in the soil layers.
The entity has already completed tenders of all eight packages of the work, and awarded five of them. The depot land development work, included in package-1, was awarded first.
Among others, construction of 10-km elevated track and stations from Uttara 3rd phase to Agargaon began under package-3 and 4. Infrastructure development on the depot land is going on under package-2. Train sets and locomotives with depot equipment are now at manufacturing stage under package-8.
Package-5, 6 and 7 are under the process of selection. Package-5 and 6 include carrying elevated structures and stations from Agargaon to Motijheel, and Package-7 is for installing and providing necessary mechanical and electrical equipments for the 20-km line and 16 stations.
smunima@yahoo.com