Commuters likely to reach 1.0m daily

The Dhaka Metro rail company is likely to get an estimated 1.0-million passengers after its extension up to Tongi, according to a latest study.
The study done under the city's first mass rapid transit line-06 (MRT-06) project says an eight-kilometre extension will establish a smooth connectivity between Dhaka's east and west through Uttara and Motijheel.
The expansion is expected to increase the traffic volume to cover 500,000 more passengers per day with Gazipur being a popular commuter belt.
The metro operator-Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL)-has been constructing the first extension up to Kamalapur rail station.
According to official sources, the MRT-06 currently takes in 300,000 commuters on average after the launch of its operation from Uttara to Motijheel from 7:00 am to 9:40 pm.
Although it has still to run at full capacity, the metro service got the highest 365,000 passengers under special circumstances.
Meanwhile, the DMTCL has announced its plan to start the MRT operation from 3:30 pm to 9:40 pm on September 20 to run the service on Fridays.
The study, which will be finalised by this month, is yet to estimate the extension cost, but sources say it is unlikely to be below $250 million as calculated at $50 million per km.
It proposes five stations-Diabari Bazar, Sonargaon Janapath east, Sonargaon Janapath west, Tongi Bazar and Tongi station-in the extended part.
Preferring anonymity, an official said the completion of this part might take five more years for completion.
After the feasibility study, the official adds, tasks like design and bidding will take three years.
The DMTCL started the MRT-06 project in 2012 to develop the first metro rail from Uttara to Motijheel in elevated mode.
Later, it extended the line up to Kamalapur station, which is due for completion next year.
Meanwhile, the popular mode of public transport, metro rail, will run on Fridays from this week as per the demand of the passengers.
"Efforts are underway to run metro rail on weekly holidays from this Friday (September 20) following the decision of the ministry," Mohammad Abdur Rouf, Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), told BSS on Tuesday.
He said the authority also expects that the metro trains will stop at Kazipara station from Friday (September 20) as it is being ready for operational activities.
During the 'Complete Shutdown' programme of the antidiscrimination students movement, miscreants vandalized Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations in the evening of July 19.
They vandalized everything including the station's ticket vending machine and passenger entry punch machine at the main station, which forced to keep closed the two stations for 37 days.
The metro rail started running again on August 25, but the two stations remained closed.
The managing director said that the authority has been relentlessly working to prepare the two stations for passengers. Earlier, the estimated cost for repairing those stations was Tk 300 crore, but later a committee was formed to further scrutinize the repairing cost.
"We hope that the repairing cost of those stations will reduce as we are procuring equipments from local market," he said.
He further said that the final repair cost will be estimated after getting report of the review committee.
According to the concerned sources, the authorities have taken the initiative to renovate and open two closed stations. As a result, Kazipara station can be opened on September 20, while Mirpur-10 station will take a few more months to become operational.
Managing Director Abdur Rauf said, "Our adviser instructed to run the metro rail on Fridays. Another challenge was the commissioning of Kazipara and Mirpur-10 stations. We have worked on Kazipara station quickly. The station will be ready by September 18."

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