3:30pm to 9:40pm: Metro rail's Friday schedule unveiled

The Dhaka metro rail authorities have issued an official order to operate the train service on Fridays from 20 September onward.

According to the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) directive issued today (18 September), the metro rail will operate from Uttara North to Motijheel from 3:30pm to 9pm, and Motijheel to Uttara North from 3:50pm to 9:40pm every Friday.

Necessary arrangements to this end have been made, reads the directive.

Additionally, Mohammad Abdur Rouf, managing director of DMTCL will hold a press briefing tomorrow to provide details regarding the operation of the metro rail on Fridays and the opening of closed stations.

Yesterday, the managing director said, "Efforts are underway to run metro rail on weekly holidays from this Friday following the decision of the ministry."

"The authorities also expect that the metro trains will stop at Kazipara station from 20 September as it is ready for operational activities," he added.

During the "Complete Shutdown" programme of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, a group of people vandalised Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations in the evening of 19 July.

They vandalised everything, including the station's ticket vending machine and passenger entry punch machine at the stations, which forced them to keep the two stations closed for 37 days.

The metro operations resumed on 25 August, but the two stations remained closed.

Earlier, the estimated cost for repairing those stations was Tk300 crore, but later a committee was formed to further scrutinise the repairing cost.

"We hope that the repair cost of these stations will reduce as we are procuring equipment from the local market," the managing director said.

He further said the final repair cost will be estimated after getting the report of the review committee.

According to relevant sources, Mirpur-10 station will take a few more months to become operational.