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Metrorail construction works speeding fast


Published : 10 Oct 2019 09:21 PM | Updated : 04 Sep 2020 01:30 PM

Around 70 percent of the construction work of the country's first-ever Metrorail has been completed so far. Erection of a total of 383 columns from Diabari to Agargaon in the capital has already been completed.

According to the project details, the 20-kilometre Metrorail is being implemented in eight packages. Around 23.50 percent works of Agargaon to Motijheel portion of the project has been done, and 52 percent progress of civil works of the project’s depot area under the package-II has become visible while the rest of the work will be finished soon.

Recently while inaugurating the construction work of package five of the Metrorail, road transport and bridge minister Obaidul Quader said, "Within December 2020, the overall construction work of the Metrorail will be completed and construction work from Diabari to Agargaon portion of Metrorail will be done by December this year".

It is to be noted that the construction of the 20-kilometer Metrorail route from Uttara to Motijheel via Mirpur under package 6 of the Mass Rapid Transit or MRT project began on June 2016. “At present, 5.86-kilometre viaduct out of 12-kilometre metro rail between Uttara and Agargaon has become visible,” Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) M A N Siddique said.

Construction of check boring, test pile, main pile and eye guarders under the packages 3 and 4 has been completed while construction of 701 pile caps out of 766, 348 pier heads out of 393, 3,949 precast segments casting out of 5,149 were finished. Currently, 11.73-kilometer viaduct and nine stations are being constructed from Uttara to Agargaon under 3rd and 4th packages.

Land development works of the depot (package-I) area has been done which started on September 8, 2016, and was completed nine months earlier. On 16 February 2019, the Japanese company started building of bogies for MRT Line-6 under the package-8 (Rolling Stock and Depot Equipment Collection), the project details said.

Under the fifth packages, 3.195-kilometre viaduct and three metro stations are being built from Agargaon to Karwarbazar while 4.92-kilometer viaduct metro-rail from Karwanbazar to Motijheel having four stations is being constructed under sixth package. Under the package, utility services including gas, water pipes, and lines have already been shifted and check boring and test pile was completed from Agaragaon to Karwarnbazar portion.

Once completed, 24 pairs of metro rail trains will run to and from Uttara and Motijheel via Mirpur and Farmgate. It will take less than 40 minutes to reach Motijheel from Uttara. The government expects to carry 60,000 passengers on each direction of the route every hour easing pressure on the streets and sufferings in traffic congestion.