Ridership on the metro rail has recently surged to nearly 500,000 passengers, prompting the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) to explore ways to enhance its capacity.
DMTCL plans to add two more cars to each train and reduce train headways from the current eight minutes to six minutes within the next two months to accommodate the growing number of passengers.
The Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 (MRT-6) which averages 350,000 passengers daily after operating partially from Uttara to Motijheel since January last year has continued to receive over 400,000 passengers last month (February), peaking at 424,481 on February 27. Earlier, it received 403,164 passengers on February 13 and 409,750 on February 26.
"Daily ridership is very close to its highest level. So, we have to resolve the operational challenges through two options -- reducing headways and adding two cars to each train," said DMTCL Managing Director Faruque Ahmed.
He, however, said that technical team will work on these measures from technical aspects and came up with suggestions accordingly. The newly-appointed MD said that changes must align with the functionality of the existing systems, including signalling.
He said though ridership curve is likely to go down in next few years with the drop of visitors or occasional passengers, the DMTCL as a passenger-focused organisation has to devise plans from now on for the sake of passengers' comfort and safety.
Due to comfortable journey without any traffic congestion, many commuters other than the Uttara-Motijheel corridor prefer using the metro rail for short distances to avoid congested road. With the recent increase in passengers, a significant number of passengers now have to wait to board the train.
When asked about the increasing capacity, the MD said with these options, MRT-6 capacity may increase by maximum 20 per cent according to initial assessment but added that technical team will meet next week in this connection.
The 20.1-km MRT-6 from Uttara North to Motijheel was designed to operate with 24 sets of train, each having six coaches or cars. Full utilization of the 144 cars with three-minute headway is expected to accommodate up to 500,000 passengers.
The DMTCL is now operating 14 sets of train out of the 24 with an eight-minute headway during peak hours and 10 minute during off-peak hours. Reducing headways is totally dependent on manpower and their skills.
Upon completion of the MRT-6 extension up to Kamalapur Station, DMTCL's capacity is likely to increase to 600,000 passengers while plan was taken to procure more sets of trains.
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