Daily commuters including service holders and traders have expressed joy as the metro rail authorities are operating trains every eight minutes during peak hours from Saturday.
The number of metro rail trips increased to 26 and as a result a total of 178 trains will run each day instead of 152, said MN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL).
About the new timings, Siddque said, three trains will run from Uttara between 7:10am to 7:30am and train will run from 7:31am to 11:48 am every eight minutes during peak hours. After that, train will run from 11:49am to 3:12pm (off peak hours) every 12 minutes as before and every eight minutes from 3:13pm to 8pm (peak hours), he added.
Nazrul Islam, a regular commuter of the metro rail at Mirpur-11 Rail Station, said the pressure of commuters is comparatively less due to the new schedule and it’s a relief for people.
Hossain, another commuter at the same station, said: “It will be better if the timing can be reduced to 3.5 minutes.”
Except Friday, now metro rail will run from Uttara-Motijheel from 7:10am to 8:40pm while the MRT and Rapid Pass users can travel by metro rail that leaves Motijheel station at 8pm.
At present, the trains run every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 12 minutes during off-peak hours. The new timings are applicable for peak hours only, said MAN Siddique.
He said that earlier the number of trains' trips were 152 every day, now it has been increased to 178.
Siddique said that currently metro trains carry about 27 million passengers on an average every day.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the first metro rail in Dhaka on December 28, 2022. At that time the metro train was running from Uttara to Agargaon. Later the prime minister inaugurated the Agargaon to Motijheel section of the Metro Rail on November 4 last year. The next day, on November 5, metro rail service started from Uttara to Motijheel.