Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Monday said steps are underway to reduce the movement frequency of metro rail in view of growing commuters' dependence on its service.

Talking to reporters at his office, Quader said the coach numbers could not be increased due to technical reasons but the steps are underway to run a train every eight minutes while the current frequency is 10 minutes.

He said increasing the number of metro coaches depends on technical matters.

There is no metro rail having more than five coaches anywhere in the world but the metro rail in Bangladesh has already been running with six compartments, he said.

But, the minister said, due to the increased demand, work is going on whether the frequency of the movement of metro rail can be reduced to 8 minutes from 10 minutes.

Earlier in the morning, Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander V Mantytskiy paid a courtesy call on the road transport and bridges minister at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

Later, the envoy told reporters that they discussed the issues related to Bangladesh's infrastructure, energy, agriculture, roads, and bridges.