Mock-up or replicas of the projected metro rail for the capital have already been brought to the Information and Exhibition Center of metro rail in a depot at Uttara.
Though the metro rail will be opened for commuters on December 16, 2021, as part of the 50th Victory Day celebrations, the mock-up metro rail will be on public display on the birthday of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on March 17.
People will have an opportunity to get firsthand experience of riding on a metro rail. They can also get lessons from metro rail instructors about how to ride metro rails as it is the first of its kind in Bangladesh.
According to MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), a maximum number of instruments for the metro rail exhibition, including mock-up trains, have already been brought to the Uttara depot from Japan.
“We will launch the mock-up train in March 2020 during the Mujib Year celebrations,” he added.
“Commuters can get detailed ideas of how to ride on the metro rail, how to get entry and exit, how to get tickets and so on from the exhibition,” he added.
The DMTCL, a government-owned company, is implementing the 20.1km long metro rail project. MRT line-6 will connect Uttara and Motijheel through Mirpur, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar and Shahbagh.
“Around 60,000 passengers will be able to move, in an hour, by using the metro rail. In 2021, an estimated 500,000 people will commute by MRT Line-6 every day,” officials have said.
Commuters will be able to travel the entire distance in less than 40 minutes at an average speed of 100kmh. Movement by metro rail is expected to reduce traffic gridlock drastically in Dhaka.
The timetable for the metro rail is yet to be fixed. But it is likely ply from 6am in the morning till 12 midnight.
About 70% of the first phase of the metro rail (Uttara-Agargaon) has already been completed, while 40% of the second phase (Agargaon-Motijheel) was completed in December last year.
The total cost of the project is Tk21,985 crore. The government is contributing Tk5,390crore, with the remaining Tk16,995 crore coming from JICA.
According to a DMTCL official, to maintain and use MRT Line-6 properly, an international-standard rolling stock will be deployed. The line will feature 24 sets of trains, and each set, initially, will consist of six cars — with a plan of expanding them to eight cars per set in the future. The sets of trains will be brought into the country by June 2021.
