The metro rail is expected to run on Fridays from this week as per the demand of passengers.

"Efforts are underway to run metro rail on weekly holidays from this Friday [September 20] following the decision of the ministry," Mohammad Abdur Rouf, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), told BSS today.

He said the metro rail authority also expects that trains will stop at Kazipara station from Friday as it is being prepared to resume operations.

During the complete shutdown programme of the anti-discrimination students movement, miscreants vandalised Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations in the evening of July 19.

They vandalised the station's ticket vending machine and passenger entry punch machine at the main station, which forced the popular public transportation service to remain closed for 37 days.

The metro rail started running again on August 25, but the two stations remained closed.

The managing director said that the authority has been relentlessly working to prepare the two stations for passengers. Earlier, the estimated cost for repairing those stations was said to be Tk 300 crore, but later a committee was formed to further scrutinise the repairing cost.

"We hope that the repairing cost of those stations will reduce as we are procuring equipment from local market," he said.

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

According to the concerned sources, the authorities have taken the initiative to renovate and open the two closed stations. As a result, Kazipara station can be opened on September 20, while Mirpur-10 station will take a few more months to become operational.

Managing Director Abdur Rouf said, "Our adviser instructed to run the metro rail on Fridays. Another challenge was the commissioning of Kazipara and Mirpur-10 stations. We have worked on Kazipara station quickly. The station will be ready by September 18."