The authorities have taken preparations to stop the metro rail at all stations from Uttara to Agargaon route by March.
As per the plan, the metro rail will stop at Pallabi station of Mirpur in the current month, January, and at Mirpur-10 afterwards. Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) is in charge of construction and operation of metro rail.
The agency said it will held an assessment meeting after 10 days of operation of the train. Issues like the problems emerged after the launching of metro rail, the steps to be taken in the days to come and the challenges ahead to stop metro rail in new stations will be discussed in the meeting.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and guests travelled in the metro rail buying tickets on the first day on 28 December 2022.
The metro rail is running with general passengers from 29 December and Tuesday was the weekend. On 31 December, the metro rail operation was suspended for two hours as scores of Fanush (sky lanterns) got stuck on the rail track’s electric wire during the New Year celebration.
Speaking to Prothom Alo on 4 January, DMTCL managing director MAN Siddique said they will hold an assessment meeting after 10 days. A decision will be taken as to in which station the metro rail will be stopped.
He claimed 70-80 per cent of people have been habituated in purchasing tickets. Many days will not be required to launch other stations. Recruitment of the workforce is also going on in full swing, Siddique added.
According to DMTCL, metro rail is not being stopped in all stations in a bid to make Dhaka dwellers habituated. However, a concerned source said there is a deficit in the preparation of DMTCL. The agency does not have available skilled workforce to launch all stations.
Moreover, some works at other stations including Shewrapara are yet to be finished. It would be difficult to tackle passengers if metro rail is stopped at all stations as the capital is densely populated and there is a crisis of transport.
According to DMTCL, on an average 6,000 passengers travelled every day in the first six days. On average 50 trains were operated and four to five trains were used. There are six coaches in a train. A total of Tk 5 million has been earned. DMTCL officials said the current operation is some sort of trial.
Majority of the manpower recruited since the metro rail project was taken up in 2012 have expertise in construction and technical works. Most of them hold senior posts. Now, the government will have to recruit new people and train them to operate the metro rail.
As of now, 274 workers have been recruited to operate the metro rail, of which 24 as train drivers and 58 station controllers. Both driver and controller can drive the train.
DMTCL sources said the authorities will need nearly thousands of manpower to operate the train in full-swing. The process of recruiting 400 more people is underway. It will take around a year to include them in train operation after the completion of training.
Requesting not to be named, an official told Prothom Alo that if the metro rail operation would have launched after six more months, the manpower crisis might not have hit hard. However, this is the learning period.
The official also said they are employing the manpower from consultancy and contract firms as per the contract.
The inoperative vending machine caused immense sufferings of the passengers in purchasing metro passes. The automated ticket machine of Agargaon station was out of service on the first day of its operation on 29 December.
Later, it was removed from the station. Still, this machine is not functioning well at times.
DMTCL source said the Japanese contract organisation Marubeni and Indian L&T Company supplied all electro-mechanical equipment, including vending machines. They input the information of all currencies into the machine two years ago.
But many banknotes have been changed recently to mark the golden jubilee of the independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Several series of those new banknotes have arrived in the market. So, when the new currency enters the vending machine, it goes out of service.
DMTCL managing director MAN Siddique told Prothom Alo that 90 per cent of the problem in vending machines has been resolved. Besides, they have preserved some banknotes to help the passengers pay if they face any trouble in purchasing tickets using fresh banknotes.
Md. Shamsul Hoque, a professor of civil engineering at BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology), told Prothom Alo that metro rail is a specialised and state of the art transportation system. Along with handling passengers, the DMTCL authorities will have to cope with many things.
He also said as the country had no experience in building metro rail, it had to recruit foreign contractors. DMTCL could have outsourced manpower instead of taking up the duties by itself in operating metro rail.
Most of the passengers still board the train out of excitement. The crowd has reduced to some extent. It will lessen further by next week. However, people might throng the stations on Friday and Saturday.
Two friends, Mahfuzur Rahman and Omar Faruk, came to Dhaka to enjoy the metro ride. They boarded the train on Wednesday at 9:00am. They said they bought the passes easily without any hassle as there was no crowd in the station.
“We have travelled to Dhaka to board metro rail and upload a picture to the social media, Facebook,” Mahfuz said.