Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Metro rail is expected to run on every Friday from this week as per the demand of passengers, Mohammad Abdur Rouf, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited said today.
"Efforts are underway to run metro rail on weekly holidays from this Friday following the decision of the ministry," Mohammad Abdur Rouf, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, told the state-owned news agency BSS.
The metro rail authorities are expected that the trains will begin stopping at Kazipara station from this Friday also 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 everything including the station's ticket vending machines and passenger entry punch machines at the main station, which forced to keep closed the two stations for 37 days.
The metro rail operations resumed on August 25 keeping the two stations 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 sources concerned, 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."
BBN/TA/AD