Metro rail makes progress up north, slow down south
The metro rail is visible in Pallabi, in the northern part of in the capital city Dhaka. The railway line is being laid around 13 metres above the main road. The railway station is under construction. Pillars are in place for power connections. Work is on in full swing for the metro rail.
Such scenes of the under-construction elevated railway tracks are visible not just in Pallabi, but around 12 km before and beyond the area. A visit to the project site on 10 October revealed workers busy with all sorts of tasks. Some were laying the tracks down, some were busy with the interiors of the railway depot. Others were seen working on the electrical wiring.
The 20.10 km metro rail is being constructed from Uttara to Motijheel in order to reduce the capital city’s traffic congestion. Much of the northern section of the metro rail is visible from Agargaon towards Uttara.
Work, however, has not progressed much along the southern section, from Agargaon to Motijheel. Pillars are up, but the elevated railway track is not visible. The city residents have been facing all sorts of inconveniences because of the construction work over the past 6 years or so and this is likely to be prolonged further. The government, however, maintains that the metro rail will begin operating from 16 December next year, the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
The metro rail project is being implemented by the state-owned Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL). Speaking to Prothom Alo, the company’s managing director and former senior secretary of the road transport and bridges ministry, MAN Siddique, said that work on the project was set back by 6 months after the militant attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016. This time the impact of coronavirus has been even more extensive, starting from December last year. The foreign nationals associated with the project are gradually returning. Yet now it is heard that coronavirus transmission may worsen in winter. That will cause further concern for the project.
North ahead, south behind
A total of 11.73 km of the metro rail is from Uttara to Agargaon in the capital city.
It begins in Uttara. A metro rail depot is being constructed there on 59 acres of land. The depot comprises 52 buildings of various sizes and other installations. Some of the buildings are complete, the walls covered in red tiles. Tiles are being placed on other buildings along with other embellishments.
There are two large sheds inside the depot. One is for a repair workshop. The other one is for trains. These sheds are being fitted with all sorts of equipment and machinery. Two railway lines have been laid to go and come from the station to the depot.
There will be three metro rail stations in Uttara. The first station is half a kilometer from the Uttara north depot. The stairs of this station are not in place as yet. Climbing up the temporary stairs to the second storey, a huge hall room was visible, 180 metres long and 33 metres wide. This is the concourse hall. The passengers will come here by the stairs, escalators and lifts to buy their tickets. The platform is one storey above. The overhead shelter there is not complete as yet, though the platform itself is more or less ready. The structure is ready for four railway lines to be put in place there.
The second station, Uttara Centre, is between Mirpur DOHS and Uttara depot. The concourse hall there is ready and the platform is in its last stages. The railway line is being put in place.
The station adjacent to DOHS is Uttara South. The concourse and platform are ready and the steel framework for the station overhead shelter is in place.
Work is on for the construction of six more stations from Pallabi to Agargaon. The elevated structure is complete here, except for some sections on Agargaon. Preparations are on to put the railway tracks in place.
From Agargaon to Motijheel, the metro rail will stretch for 8.12 km. The pillars have been constructed along this route, but not the elevated structure. Work on the seven stations for this section hasn’t begun as yet.
There are two reasons for work lagging behind in the south as compared to north. Firstly, work on this section began a year after the work started in the north. Secondly, the main contractors for this section are two Japanese companies. The Japanese nationals in senior positions of the company here went back to their country when the coronavirus pandemic broke out. The Bangladeshi company Abdul Monem Ltd is working in the section from Agargaon to Karwan Bazar.
Contractors from 5 countries
The metro rail work has been divided into eight sections. Four of these involve the elevated structure and station construction from Uttara to Motijheel. Two sections deal with constructing the depots. The remaining two sections of the work deal with the electrical system, the railway lines and procuring the engine coaches.
The main contractors for four sections of the work are Japanese companies. An Indian company is partner with the Japanese on one section, and a Bangladeshi company is partner on another. Of the remaining three sections of the work, two are being done by a Thailand-based company and another by a Chinese company. Outside of that, the entire project is being supervised by a Japanese consultant firm.
Procurement of the metro rail engines and coaches and depot goods began in September 2017. So far, 30.05 per cent of the overall work has progressed.
Work on manufacturing the engines and coaches began in Japan in February last year. One train set was supposed to have arrived on June this year, but that has not been possible due to coronavirus. Two of the six train sets have already been made in Japan. Work on three more is underway.
A total of 24 trains will commute along the metro rail. According to the contract, 5 sets of trains are to be supplied by December. The remaining 19 will be supplied within next year.
Work on laying the metro rail lines, constructing the electric substation and the trains’ power supply lines, setting up the signals and telecommunication system, the automated fare collecting system, the platform screen doors, as well as the lifts and escalators in the stations and deports, began in July 2018. So far 46.50 per cent of the work is complete.
Coronavirus impact
Work on the Uttara to Agargaon section of the metro rail project began in August 2017. Work on the Agargaon to Motijheel section began in August the following year. Work was held up for two months because of the coronavirus outbreak. Though work resumed in June, 40 per cent of the foreign nationals involved in the project have not returned as yet and so work has not resumed in full speed.
According to the project’s monthly work progress report, in March 44.12 per cent overall progress was made. Of this, 70.54 per cent was in the Uttara to Agargaon section and 39.93 per cent was in the Agargaon to Motijheel section.
Since months on, till September overall progress has been 50.40 per cent. The progress in the Uttara to Agargaon section has been 76.37 per cent and in the Agargaon to Motijheel section, it has been 43.46 per cent.
Around 10,000 persons are working on the Metrorail project. This includes around 1000 foreign nationals from Japan, India, China, Thailand, Philippines and the US. Around 600 are in Bangladesh at present.
A large part of those involved in the supervision of the project are from Japan and India. Due to the coronavirus situation, visas and flights of both countries are stopped. Many foreign nationals are not even willing to come under special arrangements. The older ones are particularly insistent on not coming until the coronavirus situation is brought under control. This includes Hideo Omri, the leader of the Japanese consultant team.
When will the metro rail start?
According to the project papers, it will take 35 minutes to commute from Uttara to Motijheel by Metrorail.
At the beginning, 483,000 passengers will be able to commute daily by the metro rail. The project was taken up in 2012 with an estimated cost of Tk 220 billion (Tk 22,000 crore). Most of this amount is coming from Japan’s international aid agency JICA. The rest is from the Bangladesh government. The government has initially declared that the metro rail would operate from 2019. Later this was extended by two years.
It will be possible to complete the project's work up till the Agargaon section by December next year, according to BMTCL sources. It will probably take another two years to complete it up till Motijheel.
Professor of civil engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Shamsul Hoque, told Prothom Alo the metro rail is the most important public transport. The sooner it starts, the better. The more delayed that the project is, the more the number of smaller cars and motorbikes will increase. These will worsen the traffic congestion.
He said that even if one section of the railway as complete, it would not be possible to start it for many existing limitations. The entire project needed to be completed before it began operating. Night shift work could be extended. And working at night would also ease the inconvenience of the people in the city during the day.
*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English version by Ayesha Kabir