Underground metro to cut airport-Kamalapur travel time to 25 minutes
Once constructed, the country's first-ever underground metro rail is expected to shorten the travel time between Kamalapur and the Dhaka airport by 85%, a development that will offer a big relief to commuters.
According to the project documents, the travel time will drop to 24.3 minutes from an average of 139 minutes by using existing road facilities.
The metro rail, known as MRT Line 1, will help save 70% of travel time on the Purbachal to Natun Bazar route and 82% on the Purbachal to Kamalapur route.
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"The minimum depth of the underground rail tracks will be 30 metres which will go up to 70 metres underground in some points, covering a part of the city from the airport to Kamalapur," said MAN Siddique, managing director of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), at a press briefing on Tuesday, ahead of the inauguration of the construction of MRT Line 1.
He said the metro rail will not require the relocation of any utility lines, as there are none below 10 metres in the capital. The construction will progress rapidly, and the commercial operation of the line will begin by 2026, as per the previous plan.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is officially going to inaugurate the Tk52,561 crore project on Thursday, allowing the country to enter the era of underground metro rail.
Siddique said that the prime minister will unveil the foundation plaque beside the Pitalganj depot area at 11am in the presence of around 1 lakh people. Then, she will attend a grand ceremony to be held beside the local Brahmankhali High School field in the presence of around 10 lakh people.
Officials said that the Ecnec approved the MRT Line 1 project in October 2019 with a deadline to conclude the work by 2026. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will provide a soft loan of Tk39,450 crore, which is about 75% of the entire project cost.
The project, approved for a period of seven years and three months, is taking about three and a half years to start. In this situation, when asked how the work will be completed on time, Siddique said, "It has already taken a lot of time to prepare the basic design and detailed design. However, contracts for several packages of the main line construction have been finalised. After awarding all these contracts, work will be done together in different locations, which will take less time."
He also said that underground excavation will be done with three tunnel boring machines. Usually, this will be done at a depth of 30 metres. However, due to the narrowness of roads in several places, including Rajarbagh, another tunnel will be laid under one tunnel. In that case, the depth of the lower tunnel will be 70 metres.
The managing director also stated that no public suffering would occur during the construction of this line.
The 31.241km rail line will have 19 stations, and 12 of them will be underground.
He said that the stations would be developed following the open-cut method. Half of the road to occupy would be cut, and it would be covered with some metal sheets. Other parts of the road will be cut, opening the portion of road that had been cut previously.
MAN Siddique said that around six months will be required for constructing stations, and it will cause public suffering at a minimum level.
The project will be implemented through 12 packages, with package 1, "improving soil and developing land of 35.90 hectares" at the depot area, to be inaugurated on Thursday.
The package, worth Tk607.65 crore, was awarded to a joint venture of Japan's Tokyu Construction and local Max Infrastructure.
Officials said that around 25 trains will be operated on the line, and each of them will have eight coaches. Each hour, a total of 27,770 passengers will ride the proposed line's metro system, with daily ridership reaching 18,770,000 by 2035.
3.35 lakh passengers rode on MRT Line 6
The DMTCL earned a revenue of Tk2.46 crore from 3.35 lakh passengers till 30 January since the service was opened to the public in a limited capacity on 29 December last year, said MAN Siddique responding to a question.
"It should be kept in mind before talking about the revenue of metro rail that the service is currently running on a limited scale. A full-day service with stoppage at all stations will increase the number of riders and revenue," he added.
