Shipment of metro rail coaches to Bangladesh from Japan is likely to begin this month.
As per the schedule the coaches are expected to arrive in the country at the last week of April.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) officials said that the first set of metro rail coaches will start journey from Japanese Kobe Port on February 20 and scheduled to reach on April 23.
DMTCL managing director MAN Siddique at a press conference said, "We expect that the first set of metro rail coaches would arrive on April 23, and two more trains would reach by August in the country. However, we are looking forward to conduct test trial of metro rail by July this year."
These trains would be brought through seaways and will be stored at Diabari depot. There will be 24 sets of trains for Metrorail.
The 20.10-kilometer (km) metro rail is being constructed from Uttara to Motijheel at a cost of around Tk 22,000 crore to reduce traffic congestion in the capital. Divided into two parts, the first part of the project under construction from Uttara to Agargaon has progressed by 78.38 percent and from Agargaon to Motijheel it has been progressed by 49.47 percent.
The combined progress of electronic and mechanical systems and rolling stock (rail coaches) and depot equipment procurement has been more than 34.82 percent. The overall average progress of the construction work of the first metro rail of Bangladesh has been done more than 55.19 percent.
According to the project details, the metro rail is projected to carry some 60,000 passengers per hour by traveling the entire route of 21.26 kms from Uttara to Motijheel-Kamalapur Railway Station in less than 40 minutes.
