Feasibility study for MRT Line-4 begins in June

The metro rail authority will start the feasibility study for Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-4 next month, which is supposed to link Dhaka with Narayanganj's Madanpur.

The consultants hired for the job have reached Dhaka and held a meeting with the metro railway authorities on Monday.

"They [consultants] will first visit the project area and will mobilise their manpower to start the study next month," MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL), told The Daily Star on Monday.

He said a consortium of four South Korean companies will carry out the feasibility study and prepare a basic design for the project. Korea will finance the work.

The consortium is supposed to complete the work within one and a half years, he said, adding that they will prepare the project's basic design to get its estimated cost.

DMTCL has a time-bound action plan to build a 140-km metro rail network, comprising six lines, in and around Dhaka by 2030 to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

The MRT Line-6, country's first metro rail line, is now operational on Uttara-Motijheel route and its extended part from Motijheel to Kamalapur is expected to be opened by June next year.

The physical works on MRT Line-1 and MRT Line-5 (northern route) started last year, while a project proposal for MRT Line-5 (southern route) is now pending with the Planning Commission for approval.

MRT Line 4 and 2 are lagging behind in terms of preparation and may miss the deadline to complete the lines within 2030, officials said.

Although feasibility of MRT Line-4 is going to start, the financier for the feasibility study of MRT Line-2 has not yet been found, let alone hiring a consultant for the work, they added.

Once the feasibility studies are done and financiers are found, the authorities will have to go through a long process -- preparing a project proposal, having it approved, acquiring land, preparing a detailed design, and floating tenders to hire contractors, they said.

All these preparatory works usually take three to four years, which is why the authorities may not be able to meet the deadline for these projects, officials feared.

Asked whether they will be able to complete MRT Lines 2 and 4 within the stipulated time, Siddique said, "Let us start the work first, and then we will figure out if we can meet the deadline."

As per the preliminary plan, MRT Line-4 is supposed to be built from Kamalapur to Narayanganj underground.

However, metro rail authorities later changed the plan as Bangladesh Railway is expanding the existing lines from Dhaka to Narayanganj.

Its new 16km route will stretch from Dhaka to Narayanganj's Madanpur via Signboard. In May last year, the government signed a MoU with South Korea to finance the project.

As per the pre-feasibility study, the route will have both underground and elevated sections. The possible alignment would be Kamalapur, Sayedabad, Jatrabari, Shanir Akhra, Signboard, Chittagong Road, Kanchapur and Madanpur.