Metro rail’s Agagaon-Motijheel section opens today
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is going to inaugurate the second phase of the metro rail service from Agargaon to Motijheel today, Saturday.
"Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the Agargaon-Motijheel section at 2.30 pm Saturday from the Agargaon station. Then, she will take the metro to Motijheel for another inaugural programme at the Motijheel station," said MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL).
The primie minister will also inaugurate the construction work of MRT Line-5 (Northern route), which will be a 20-km line from Hemayetpur to Bhatara via Gabtoli, Mirpur-10, Gulshan. The project is expected to be completed by 2028. The estimated cost of the project is Tk 412.39 billion.
Commuters will be able to take the train from Uttara to Motijheel starting 5 November, said managing director of DMTCL.
He said that regular metro service from Uttara to Agargaon will be suspended on Saturday (4 November) due to the inaugural ceremony.
Earlier, on 28 December, PM Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first phase of the first ever metro rail service of the country from Uttara to Agargaon.
Besides, road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader said that the metro rail will stop at three stations on Agargaon-Motijheel section.
"The length of the Agargaon to Motijheel section is 8.72km. The metro rail will stop at Farmgate, Secretariat and Motijheel stations," he said.
On the Uttara-Motijheel route, the metro will run daily from 7:30 am to 11:30 am from 5 November, the minister said.
He also added that after 11:30 am, metro rail movement will be stopped on the Motijheel-Agargaon route, while it will operate up to 8:30 pm in the Uttara-Agargaon section.
Considering convenience, the route has been extended by 1.16 km from Motijheel to Kamalapur, Quader said the extended portion will be completed by June 2024.
Each train can run at a speed of 100 to 110 km with 2,300 passengers. However, the speed will be lower in areas with bends.
The metro rail will be able to carry 60 thousand passengers per hour and half a million passengers per day and one train will arrive at each station every four minutes.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been constructing the metro rail and providing soft loan to the project. The JICA gave Taka for the project.