Four amusement parks would be built for entertainment of public coming to Metrorail stations. These would be initially built at Uttara, Agargaon, Farmgate and Kamalapur Metrorail stations.
Planning Division Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty made the disclosure to reporters after a meeting of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday while referring to the increase in time and cost of the Metrorail project.
On the day, the Ecnec approved a total of eight projects worth Tk 15,856.80 crore including the 2nd revision of the much-hyped Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development (Line-6) project with an additional cost of Tk 11,486.92 crore.
The approval was given from the ECNEC meeting with ECNEC chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty said that the cost and time of the project is increasing due to various reasons.
“One of the reasons for this is that four stations will be turned into entertainment plazas. There will be entertainment for children in these station plazas. Besides, the stations would have shops, hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and entertainment centers for passengers. There would be elevators and escalators for the sick and disabled people. There would be two types of rapid passes, permanent and temporary, for metro rail travel,” he mentioned.
Uttara-Agargaon part of Metrorail will be operational by this December, he added.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said that a total of eight projects were approved on Tuesday involving an estimated cost of Tk 15,856.80 crore. Of the total project cost, Tk 12,444.25 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh, Tk 134.57 crore from the concerned organization's own fund while the rest Tk 3,277.98 crore as project assistance.”
Of the approved eight projects, four are new while four others are revised projects.
As per the 2nd revision of the Metro Rail Project, there will be civil works, rolling stocks modification, E & M system and station plaza construction from Motijheel to Kamalapur Line. With the latest revision, the length of the metro rail (Line-6) will increase by 1.16 km while the total cost will reach Tk 33,471.99 crore.
State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam said that the ECNEC meeting discussed about the launching of the much-hyped Metrorail (Line-6) likely to open on December 16 this year with an aim to ease the traffic congestion in the capital. Initially, the metro rail will operate from Uttara to Agargaon as the work on the 11.73 km Diabari-Agargaon portion is nearing completion.
The other projects approved in the meeting are Upgrading Hathazari to Raozan portion of Chattogram-Rangamati national highway into four-lane with Tk 104.69 crore, Upgrading Itakhola-Mothkhola-Katiadi Road and Noyapara-Araihazar-Narsingdi-Raipura regional highway into due standard and width at a cost of Tk 984.85 crore, Construction of Pipeline from Dhonua to Mymensingh for ensuring gas supply to Mymensingh Combined Cycle Power Plant at a cost of Tk 553.16 crore.
The other projects approved in the meeting are population-based uterine and breast cancer screening Programme (EPCBCSP) including electronic data tracking, 2nd revised, with an additional cost of Tk 129.67 crore, Protecting Khagrachhari town and adjacent infrastructures from river erosion with Tk 586.01 crore, Upazila Governance and Development Project, 2nd revised, with an additional cost of Tk 211.50 crore and Greater Dinajpur rural infrastructures development project with Tk 1,800 crore.