Uttara-Motijheel Metro: 8am-8pm service not before April

Metro rail passengers of the Agargaon-Motijheel section may have to wait until April to have 12-hours-a-day service.

They may have to wait until July for service until midnight on the entire Uttara-Motijheel section, hinted Metro rail authorities today.

The Dhaka University and Bijoy Sarani stations will open on December 13, they said, adding that the duration of services on the Agargaon-Motijheel section will remain the same, 7:30am to 11:30am.

MRT/Rapid pass holders, however, can get on trains as soon as 7:10am at Uttara end and as late as 12:12pm at the Motijheel end.

MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), at a press conference today said the Karawan Bazar and Shahbagh stations on the Mass Rapid Transit-6 will open within January.

He said after all the stations are in service, they would start increasing service time.

Metro service on the Motijheel-Kamalapur section is expected to begin in June 2025, he said.

MAN Siddique said around 1.51 crore people used the metro so far and over one lakh people use the service daily.

MRT-1, MRT-5 (NORTHERN ROUTE)

Work on land development for the depots of MRT-1 at Pitalganj and MRT-5 (northern route) at Hemayetpur is going on in full swing.

Works of the Tk 52,561.43-crore project, MRT Line-1, the first underground metro rail project in the country, started with land development for the depot in February. Deadline of the project is 2026.

Project Director Abul Kashem Bhuiyan of MRT-1 said the project will be implemented under 12 packages and land development works are going on under first package.

Tendering process for other packages is now at different stage and they hope to complete the tendering process for the second package –namely Package-5—within August or September next year, he said.

Meaning, physical works for main metro line will start after September, he said.

MRT Line-5 (northern route) project is to build a 20km rail line from Savar's Hemayetpur to Bhatara via Gabtoli, Mirpur, and Gulshan at cost of Tk 41,239 crore. The deadline for the project is 2028.

Project Director Aftab Hossain Khan MRT-5 (northern route) said the project will be implemented under eight packages of which land depot's land development is package no-1.

They hope to complete tendering process for several packages for main line by December next year, he added.