Steps are being taken to decrease the interval between metro rail services by two minutes from the current gaps of 10 and 12 minutes, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said today (12 February).
However, the minister added that the number of compartments would not increase.
Obaidul Quader, also the General Secretary of the ruling Awami League, said this while talking to reporters at the Secretariat following a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Bangladesh.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), the organisation responsible for building and managing the metro rail system in Dhaka, say they have the capability to operate trains every three and a half minutes from Uttara to Motijheel.
However, the company mentioned that additional manpower is required to operate additional trains, in addition to the trained manpower.
Quader said, "The launch of metro rail in Bangladesh was once just a dream. Metro rail systems worldwide typically operate with no more than five compartments. However, six compartments are already in use in the metro rail system in our country. Nonetheless, this is a technical matter as metro rail is not an ordinary railway. The initiative to reduce the frequency is currently underway."
During the planning stages of the Metrorail Line-6 (North-Motijheel) project in Dhaka, it was envisioned that the metro rail would operate from morning till midnight, with the capacity to transport 60,000 passengers per hour and 5 lakh passengers per day. As per the initial plan, 24 sets of trains were procured under the Line-6 project.
Currently, metro trains operate from Uttara to Motijheel from 7:30am to 8:30pm. During peak hours, trains run every 10 minutes, and during off-peak hours, they run every 12 minutes.
