Dhaka city's maiden metro rail will take the highest 100-kilometre per hour speed on its track from Uttara to Mirpur-10 in a day or two part of its test run.
Sources said the trial run of the first set train began at slow speed from the Uttara depot on August 29 upon completion of its workshop level test.
The train's test run by accelerating speed up to 80 kph with break has been done in phases.
"Everything has gone well so far," says a project insider, adding: "Tests are needed to ensure flawless manufacturing and integration of all train sets."
Twenty-four sets of train will run on the mass rapid transit (MRT) line-06. So, the viaduct, signaling system, stations and others should be checked minutely.
The Dhaka Mass Transit Company (DMTC) is developing line-06 from Uttara to Kamalapur, setting the third revised target of commissioning the first half of the 21.3-km corridor by December 2022.
It is crucial to do the dummy run until Agargaon to meet the target of commissioning the first 11.7 km.
Building all stations and signalling system with electric lines are needed before test, but two other stations of the first half are not fully equipped.
Sources said the Japanese contractor Kawasaki, which is conducting all necessary tests, is supposed to start speed test of entire 11.7 km by December.
It has to conduct two types of speed test. The first test gradually gathers speed with the break system while the next with carrying load inside the train.
"…it is now being planned to complete the test run on the viaducts by April to hand over to the contractor of package-07," said the person engaged with MRT-06.
As part of the tests, integration test of the trains with stations and other systems will be carried out by the contractor of the contract package (CP)-07.
It is possible to hand over the MRT 6 to the DMTC by next August/September for commercial test for several months to meet the commissioning target, he added.
Sources, however, say readying manpower for running all the trains with the current setup are challenging to meet the government's target for inauguration.
All the trains will not be readied by then as manufacturing and shipment of the sets were hit by rounds of coronavirus lockdown.
Each train set has six coaches to carry 60,000 passengers per day.
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