Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Friday (Jul 7) said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the Agargaon-Motijheel section of metro rail in October. "If everything remains okay, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the commercial run of metro rail on Agargaon-Motijheel route in the last week of October this year," he told a function arranged at Agargaon in Dhaka to inaugurate the test run of metro rail on this route, local media reported.
The road transport and bridges minister opened the test run of metro rail from Agargaon to Motijheel at 4:34 p.m. on Friday.
Speaking at the function, he said three stations – Farmgate, Bangladesh Secretariat, and Motijheel – would initially be opened when trains start running on the Agargaon-Motijheel route and then the number of stations will be increased gradually.
Afterwards, he said, the city commuters will be able to travel from Uttara to Motijheel uninterruptedly and Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has completed all preparations in this regard.
Quader, also the Awami League general secretary, said metrorail is no longer a dream but a reality. At present, 70,000 local and foreign passengers are traveling by the metro rail on average daily and the number of its passengers is on the rise. Now the average daily income of metro rail is about Tk 26 lakh, he added.
The road transport and bridges minister said the Agargaon-Motijheel section of the metro rail has been inaugurated on trial basis and it is expected that the premier will open this part in October next. To this end, he said, all the tests will continue in phases from today (Friday) till Oct 15. These tests will be conducted on Friday during day time and on other days at night.
