DMTCL or Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited is currently on its mission to accomplish the project metro rail in Dhaka. This project will be a rapid transit system in collaboration with a bus rapid transit (BRT) substructure. The Metro Rail in Dhaka will be a major tool for easing the present heavy traffic congestion. The construction of this project began on 26th June 2016. Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the initiation of the metro rail project construction.
Dhaka Metro Rail Trivia
The Metro Rail in Dhaka has a lot of interesting facts that we are mostly unaware of. Such a project is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, and hence, we are here to present with a lot of things happening and going around this project.
Construction companies
The Metro Rail in Dhaka project is a collective effort of the rail construction corporations from Bangladesh, Japan, China, and Thailand. The duty of the civil work is under Sinohydro Corporation Ltd. JV of China, Italian-Thai Development Public Company Ltd., Tekken Corporation of Japan, Abdul Monem Limited of Bangladesh, Marubeni-L&T (Japan), AB Nikko Kogyo Co., Ltd. (Japan) JV, Tokyo Construction Co. Ltd, Kawasaki-Mitsubishi Consortium, and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd of Japan.
Contract packages
- CP-01: This package is of depot land development, which had a contract signing between DMTCL and Tokyo Construction Ltd on 27th March 2016.
- CP-02: This package is of depot civil and buildings. Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited & Sino-hydro Corporation Limited JV got the contract as an award.
- CP-03: This package is for the construction of viaducts and elevated stations from Uttara North to Pallabi. Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited received this contract as an award. This is the work of MRT Line-6.
- CP-04: This package is for the construction of viaducts and elevated stations from Pallabi to Agargaon. Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited received this contract as an award. This is the work of MRT Line-6.
- CP-05: This package is for the construction of 3.20 km viaducts and 3 elevated stations from Agargaon to Karwan Bazar. The contract was between DMTCL and Tekken-AML-Abenikko JV.
- CP-06: This package is for the construction of 4.92 km viaducts and 4 elevated stations from Karwan Bazar to Motijheel. The contract was between DMTCL and SMCC-ITD JV.
- CP-07: This package is for the Electro-Mechanical (E&M) systems of MRT Line-6. Marubeni-L&T and DMTCL signed the contract.
- CP-08: This package is for the supply of Rolling Stock & Depot Equipment of MRT Line-06. Kawasaki-Mitsubishi Consortium and DMTCL signed the contract.
Lines
Project Metro Rail in Dhaka consists of 6 lines in the blueprint, where MRT-6 is under construction right now. MRT-1 to MRT-5 are future projects. The route alignment of MRT-6 is from Uttara 3rd Phase through Pallabi, Rokeya Sarani, Khamar Bari, Farm Gate, Hotel Sonargaon, Shahbag, TSC, Doyel Chattar, Topkhana Road, and finally Bangladesh Bank. MRT-5 has two parts, Northern lines, and Southern lines.
Stations
There will be a sum total of 68 elevated, underground, and ground metro rail stations. 16 of them are under construction and the rest are part of the future infrastructural blueprint.
The train technology
Bombardier Transportation will be providing their Bombardier Innovia technology, which is a fully driverless system. This includes the likes of an automated monorail system, automated people mover system, and the brand new technology of the medium-capacity automated metro system. Also, Siemens Inspiro will also be providing multiple unit trains which are fully electricity generated. Each train will have 6 carts, all fully air-conditioned.
How Metro Rail will change the future economy of Dhaka
The emergence of the metro rail will be a revolution and the biggest solution to the traffic congestion in the city of Dhaka. After completion of all 6 lines, the trains will carry approximately 70,000 people in an hour. It will start saving on-road traffic time from 40 minutes to a maximum of two hours. And collective savings will save up to 200 million BDT per year which is 19% of the total tax revenue in Bangladesh and 2% GDP. There will be luxurious hotels, shopping malls, food courts, entertainment spaces that will be growing around each of the stations. This is a plan of DMTCL for income-generating commercial hubs under a transit-oriented development (TOD) system.
Metro Rail and its impact on the environment
Not only would the metro rail offer massive financial gains, but the environment will also get massive benefits. With lesser vehicles on the road, and people commuting through electricity-generated trains, pollution will drop rapidly with a bump in the Air Quality Index. Moreover, the metro rail will have noise barriers and vibration-free tracks. As a result, there will be a maximum reduction in heat production and extra energy consumption.
Metro Rail in Dhaka is a dream of every Dhaka dweller suffering on the roads due to heavy congestion each and every day. The condition is worsening. Henceforth, it is high time the government should inaugurate the rides with an increase of the pace in construction of the project.
