Ministry agrees to start recruiting professionals for DMTC

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRT&B) has finally agreed to start recruiting dedicated professionals for the metro rail company amid pressure from the project's Japanese financier.
Sources said a mission of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) clearly informed the ministry about the urgent necessity of recruiting professionals for the Dhaka Mass Transit Company (DMTC).
The mission visited the country at the end of July and dropped a hint about its difficulty in assisting the government in the next metro rail project known as Mass Rapid Transit Line 5 if the DMTC is not made fully operational, they added.
JICA has been extending its all-out support to develop the first-ever metro rail in the city with providing technical support from planning to implementation stage since the government finalised Dhaka city transport plan named strategic transport plan (STP).
According to JICA recommendations, DMTC has to be made fully functional by completing recruitment of around 2,000 people including engineers by 2016. Although DMTC has been working only to hold board meeting and get metro rail related decisions including approval of different government purchase, the MoRT&B has been dillydallying in recruiting professionals for the project.
Without starting recruitment, it has recently submitted a proposal for recruitment of 150 government officials and engineers to the Ministry of Finance to expand the project unit's activities until the MRT-6 is ready for launching.
Officials said the DMTC board on August 17 agreed to recruit 85 engineers for the company as per the JICA's recent suggestion and directed people concerned in this regard.
They said in line with the project unit's proposal, 78 engineers were recommended for recruitment which the ministry wanted to shift to the DMTC after the end of MRT 6.
But sources said JICA in a letter sent to the ministry has shared a plan to train the engineers. Apart from 78 engineers, it also suggested recruiting five more engineers under DMTC.
According to the JICA's plan, these engineers will be imparted job training at home and abroad including three months in the Bangladesh Railway's training institution and two years in Japan metro rail company.
The country's first metro rail line, MRT 6, is now in its formative stage. An elevated track will be set up from Uttara to Motijheel. JICA has also been providing technical support to conduct feasibility study on the city's second metro rail MRT-1 and expressed interest earlier to carry out study on the third one (MRT-5).
The government signed minutes of discussion with JICA to complete recruitment for the DMTC by 2016 so that it could be fully functional to plan, implement and operate all MRTs in the city.
Under the revised STP, five MRTs have been recommended in the city's north-south and east-west direction aiming to ease traffic congestion and help thousands of commuters travel on all corridors in few minutes.
smunima@yahoo.com