Inauguration of metro rail’s Agargaon-Motijheel section postponed to 29 Oct

The inauguration of Dhaka metro rail's MRT Line-6 on Agargaon-Motijheel section has been postponed to 29 October. 

Earlier, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the Agargaon-Motijheel section will be opened on 20 October. 

Ichiguchi Tomohide, chief representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), Bangladesh office, confirmed the news to The Business Standard on Monday (9 October).

There are seven stations on the Agargaon to Motijheel part of the metrorail – Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, TSC, Press Club and Motijheel.

Initially, five trains will run from Agargaon to Motijheel every 15 minutes and the number of trains will be increased gradually by reducing the time interval.

According to Metro Rail authorities, when the entire system is operational, services will be available from 7 am to 10 pm initially and then it will be extended to 11:30 pm.

The cost of the country's first ever metro rail project stands at Tk33,472 crore. Notably, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided Tk19,719 crore in the form of a loan to support the project, while the government of Bangladesh funded the remaining amount.

In the beginning, the estimated cost of this project was about Tk 21,000 crore. The cost has increased due to the construction of an additional 1.6 km section from Motijheel to Kamalapur, acquisition of new land for each station, and the addition of various new facilities.

The main construction work of the project started in 2017.

The project is scheduled to be completed by December 2025.

The prime minister formally inaugurated the Uttara-Agargaon section of MRT-6 line of the Dhaka Metro Rail on 28 December last year.

At first, only three stations on this route were open to the public. Later, all nine stations on the Uttara-Agargaon route became operational in phases.