38.53pc work of phase-1 of metro rail completed

The construction work of the metro rail is progressing fast as the authorities have completed 38.53 per cent work of the first phase of the project from Uttara to Agargaon.

“At present, 3 kilometers out of 12-kilometers of Uttara-Agargaon part of the metro rail has become visible,” Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) M A N Siddique said on Thursday.

He said currently 11.73-kilomtere viaduct and nine stations are being constructed from Uttara to Agargaon under 3rd and 4th packages.

The government has planned to put into operation over 20-kilomtere long metro-rail project from Uttara to Motijheel in eight packages.

“Construction work of Mass-Rapid Transport (MRT) Line-6, the country’s first elevated metro rail system in Dhaka city, is going on in full swing targeting to complete it by the end of 2020,” said Siddique.

The land development work of depot (package-I) area has been completed which started on September 8, 2016. The work of depot has been finished nine months ahead of the scheduled time.

The progress of civil work under the package-II is 24.71 per cent and the rest of the work will be finished by June this year, BSS reported quoting the official.

Construction of check boring, test pile and main pile under the package 3rd and 4th has been completed, he said, adding that construction of 582 pile caps out of 766 have already been completed. Construction of 264 pier heads out of 393, 81 eye guarders out of 108 and 2,286 precast segment casting has already been completed.

On February 16 in 2019, the Japanese company started building of bogies for MRT Line-6 under the package 8th (Rolling Stock and Depot Equipment Collection).

Under fifth packages, 3.195-kilometre viaduct and three metro stations are being built from Agargaon to Karwar Bazar while 4.92-kilometre viaduct metro-rail from Karwan Bazar to Motijheel having four stations is being constructed under sixth packages.

Apart from this, utility services including gas, water pipelines have already been shifted to facilitate building of the 3.195 km viaduct metro-rail and three stations from Agaragaon to Karwarn Bazar.