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On the occasion of the holy Eid-ul-Fitr, the Metrorail will resume operations on Saturday (April 13) after being closed on the day of Eid and the following day. However, the one hour that was extended on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, is no longer there. Metrorail will run on earlier schedule. Sub-project director of Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project Tarafdar Mahmudur Rahman informed this information.
Metrorail officials say there is a shortage of staff to run Metrorail. And there will be no passengers on Eid. So it was decided to close the metro rail on Eid day.
It is known that on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, the metro rail service was extended by one hour from March 27. Metrorail operates till 10:14 PM. And at 7:10 in the morning, the Uttara first left from the northern end towards Motijheel. On the other hand, the first train leaves from Motijheel end at 7:30 am.
Meanwhile, in response to a question of parliament member M Abdul Latif in the session of the National Assembly on March 4, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said that in the first 6 months of the operation of the Metrorail, the income was Tk 182.8 million 6 thousand 514. He gave this information according to the accounts of the financial year 2022-23 audited by the audit firm.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the metro rail section from Uttara to Agargaon on December 28, 2022 and from Agargaon to Motijheel on November 4 last year. Later, on November 4 last year, he inaugurated the Motijheel section from Agargaon.
Then on December 31, Shahbagh and Karwanbazar stations of the metro rail were finally launched. Now Metrorail is running regularly as per scheduled commercial schedule every day except Friday. At present, 16 metrorail stations are operating in Uttara North, Uttara Centre, Uttara Dakshin, Pallabi, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-10, Kazipara, Sheorapara, Agargaon, Vijay Sarani, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University, Bangladesh Secretariat and Motijheel
Passengers bought about 20,000 MRT passes in the last three days for easy travel on the Metrorail from morning to night. And to reduce the crowd of passengers, the authorities are also thinking of reducing the time between the metro rail movement and adding new coaches.
Company Secretary (Joint Secretary) of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited Mohammad Abdur Rauf said that about 20 thousand people have bought our MRT pass in the last three days. We are also thinking of increasing the number of compartments to reduce crowding. In the existing system we can add two more compartments in each coach. Besides, it will be considered if a new coach is needed. Besides, we will conduct a survey to see how much the time between metro trains can be reduced.
On the other hand, the bus owners have claimed that the metro rail is running from Uttara to Motijheel from morning to 8:40 pm and they are suffering from passenger shortage. Passengers on the Mirpur to Motijheel route have halved in the last few days, they said. So now the bus owners are thinking of running these buses on other routes.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) said that about two and a half lakh passengers are taking this service every day. 1800-2000 people travel from Uttara to Motijheel in each train during morning peak hour.
Bangladesh /FM
