2nd-phase utility relocation along metro rail route begins tomorrow

The metro rail authority starts its utility relocation work from Agargaon to Motijheel area in the capital tomorrow (Sunday) as part of the metro rail project.
The traffic situation in the capital is likely to face another blow for the next few months due to the relocation work.
Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development (DMRTD) project office earlier completed the first phase of utility shifting work from Uttara to Agargaon.
The shifting caused immense suffering to the commuters, as it took almost eight months to complete the work of 11 agencies concerned against the target of four months.
Officials said the project office has brought changes in the shifting plan in the second phase, taking into account experiences of the first phase work, for minimising the commuters' sufferings in all possible ways.
According to the plan, shifting all utilities from along the 10-kilometre route will start from Krishibid Institute at Farmgate.
After completing work of the Agargaon-Farmgate part, shifting work on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue will be carried out, and it will gradually move towards Motijheel.
The entire work will be done after digging 100-metre trenches one by one.
"This plan was taken to minimize sufferings of people as well as to reduce pressure on one of the busiest roads in all possible ways," said Managing Director (MD) of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) M A N Siddique.
This time, relocation work will be supervised by the project office, and not by the agencies concerned themselves, he added.
Of the total 20.1-km MRT corridor, the Agargaon-Motijheel part is more congested than the Uttara-Agargaon part, as the former's entire area has establishments with complex networks of utility lines.
In the first phase work, hardly any utility relocation work was needed in Uttara third phase area due to not development of any establishment there.
Moreover, Farmgate is considered the city's most crowded and congested zone because of its link with all four directions -- north, south, east and west.
Hundreds of buses of more than 50 routes also use Farmgate crossing, making the entire area congested with traffic jam almost every day. The road is also important for crossing of the VVIPs.
The officials said the second phase of utility relocation work will be carried out at night with the target of completing it by the dry season (until March).
"When the first 100 metre work will be ready for top covering, next 100 metre trench will be excavated. In this way, the entire 10 km will be covered phase by phase," said a senior official.
While bringing attention to the DMRTD's latest plan that shows completion of every 100 metre work in a day by all 11 agencies, the DMTCL MD said they have already prepared all the agencies concerned through coordination meetings to work together at night.
"They've all taken preparations together to work maintaining coordination. We've ensured all kinds of cooperation, including security, to work at night. This is done for the sake of minimizing the sufferings of commuters," he told the FE.
The DMTCL MD also said in the second phase, some traffic management plan and messages for commuters to get their cooperation have been taken.
Dhaka Cantonment authority has been requested to allow public transports through its roads. Traffic police members have also been advised to manage signals and corridors efficiently.
The DMRTD project took the initiative of relocating the service lines of utilities -- gas, electricity, fibre-optic and land-phone etc -- along the metro rail corridor before the contractors start construction of stations and piers for the elevated infrastructures of MRT-6.
In this part, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), DESCO, Titas, BTCL, GrameenPhone, Dhaka WASA, DPDC and Fibre@Home were involved in shifting their respective utility lines. Dhaka North City Corporation was also engaged in carpeting the roads, where the work was done.
In the first phase work, DMRTD was to cut common trenches in the middle of one side of the road from Agargaon to Mirpur-10 to relocate high tension line and service lines of other agencies.
But due to disagreement among all these service providers to work in a single trench, each of them dug trenches separately every time they carried out respective work, leading to threefold rise of the estimated expenditure.

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