343 MRT-6 workers got Covid-19 so far

Some 343 people involved with Mass Rapid Transit Line-6, the first metro rail project in the country, have so far been infected with Covid-19. None of them died.

Of them, six foreign engineers were infected with the viral disease recently and are taking treatment under their own arrangement, MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), the implementing agency of the project, said yesterday.

He was speaking at a monthly press briefing on the project. He used to hold the press conference in person but yesterday he did it virtually due to rise of the Covid-19 infection rate again.

While local people involved in the first-track project have already started getting coronavirus vaccine, registration of foreigners involved in the project would start from March 17, he said.

MRT-6 is being built from the capital's Uttara third phase to Motijheel at the cost of Tk 22,000 crore. Work of the project was halted for more than two months after the government declared a shutdown in late March last year to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

Talking about the progress of the project, he said the overall progress is 58.72 percent.

The first phase of the project, from Uttara to Agargaon, witnessed 81.42 percent progress as of February. The second phase, from Agargaon to Motijheel, saw 54.61 percent progress and the third phase, which involves the installation of the tracks and procurement of carriages and other equipment, has seen 49 percent progress, he said.

A total of 13.27km of viaducts, out of 20.10km, of MRT-6 have so far been placed, he said.

Planning Minister MA Mannan recently said the first phase -- from Uttara to Agargaon -- of the metro rail is likely to be operational in December this year.

Asked yesterday, MAN Siddique said they would be able to inform about the plan after the trains reach Bangladesh and they conduct trial runs.