Construction of the country's first metro rail, meant to free city dwellers from traffic jams, is moving fast. Work on the 11.73 km stretch from Diabari in Uttara to Agargaon is almost complete, and the whole route from Uttara to Motijheel has been joined by viaduct, so the road work is also finished. Removing road barriers and all other metro rail construction materials to widen the road is now in full swing.

Roads have eased most along the 11.73 km from Uttara to Agargaon, where the barriers are being removed and the road resurfaced with fresh bitumen. These roads had long been closed off for the metro rail construction.

On the spot, there were no metro rail construction materials on that stretch of road. Small concrete walls have been built beside the metro pillars in the middle of the road, mainly to protect the pillars from impact, and the space behind them has been filled with soil. Gourds, Malabar spinach and various ornamental foliage plants have been planted there.

The metro rail roadway belongs to the North City Corporation. Once construction is complete, the road will be handed over to the Dhaka North and South City Corporations, after which various species of trees will be planted in the middle of the road for beautification.

Shanti Moni Chakma, deputy project director (land acquisition and resettlement) of the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line-6), told Jagonews24 that after construction the road below will be handed to the city corporation because it owns the road, and beautification will be done through it. There are plans to plant various kinds of trees.

There are also plans to plant flowering trees along the metro route, including croton, kanchan, oleander, gardenia, kurchi, radhachura, haimanti, tagar, sonalu, krishnachura, kadam, bakul and palash. On the Uttara-Agargaon route, the road below only a few stations has yet to be opened, and workers are clearing the debris there.

According to DMTCL, overall progress on MRT-6, Bangladesh's first metro rail, is 74.04 per cent. Civil works on the Uttara Third Phase to Agargaon section, set for the first phase, are 90.08 per cent complete, and on the Agargaon to Motijheel section, set for the second phase, 73.08 per cent. Combined progress on electrical and mechanical systems, rolling stock (rail coaches) and depot equipment is 70.91 per cent. For the Motijheel to Kamalapur section, the social study, household survey, land acquisition, resettlement plan, environmental impact assessment and basic design are complete, and detailed design and land acquisition are under way.

The metro rail will run 24 train sets, each with six cars, at 100 km an hour carrying passengers. It will be able to carry 60,000 passengers an hour in both directions.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.