Shawdesh desk:

Metro rail  will see a test run for the first time from Uttara to Agargaon in the city on Sunday as part of a plan to carry passengers by December 2022.

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) Managing Director MAN Siddique informed this at a webinar on Thursday.

“Residents of the capital will be able to commute through metro rail by December next year,” Siddique said.

Prior to the planned passenger-free performance test run in 11.73km Uttara-Agargaon segment, metro trains went through a number of test runs.

DMTCL conducted the first test run from Uttara Diabari to Mirpur12 on August 29 this year, which was later extended to Mirpur-10.

Performance tests are being carried out in three parts. At first, metro rail plied between three stations. In the second step, the test run was done between six stations upto Mirpur-10.

And finally, it is being carried out in the whole Uttara-Agargaon segment out of 20.10km metro rail elevated track from Uttara to Motijheel.

The performance test will be done for six months from last August and then an integrated test will be carried out for the following three months.

Subsequently, metro rail will be put on trial run for another five months to make it ready for plying within the Uttara-Agargaon first phase by December next year.

So far, nearly 18.5km of 20.10km viaduct has already been erected and six out of 16 stations have been constructed. Railline and electricity line have also been installed in Uttara-Agargaon portion.

Upto November, the project saw overall progress of 72 percent with Uttara-Agargaon segment’s public works advancing 89.61 percent and Agargaon-Motijheel segment 70.57 percent.

The scheme is being implemented spending nearly Tk 220 billion, major portion of which is coming from Japan government. Its completion deadline is June 2024.

A total of 24 train sets, each set having six coaches including two locomotives at both sides, are being procured from Japan.

So far, seven sets have already reached at Diabari depot from Japan and one set is on the way to depot from Mongla, two sets already sailed for Bangladesh and others under different stages of construction in Japan, according to project officials.