Metro rail monument for seven Japanese Holey Artisan victims
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) will construct a monument in memory of the seven Japanese citizens killed in the militant attack at Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016, as they were involved with a metro rail project.
“The governments of Bangladesh and Japan jointly took the decision,” MAN Siddique, managing director of DMTCL -- the state-owned company implementing metro rail projects, told The Daily Star recently.
Initially, the monument would be set up at exhibition and information centre of Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 at Uttara and later it would be shifted to Natun Bazar station of MRT Line-1, once completed. All seven Japanese nationals were involved in the MRT-1 project, Siddique said.
DMTCL and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have already signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard and as per the MoU, DMTCL will finance and build the monument using project funds, a DMTCL official said.
Another official of DMTCL said the monument will be constructed in consultation with JICA and Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited. One of the contractors of MRT-6 will build the monument.
The money will come from MRT-6 project, he said, wishing anonymity.
On the night of July 1, 2016, armed militants stormed Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s Gulshan and killed 20 hostages, mostly foreign nationals. Two police officials were also killed during the 12-hour stand-off.
Of the victims, the seven Japanese -- Hiroshi Tanaka (80), Hideki Hashimoto (65), Koyo Ogasawara (56), Nobuhiro Kurosaki (48), Yuko Sakai (42), Makoto Okamura (32) and Rui Shimodaira (27) -- were private consultants.
Apart from MRT-6, which has seen 38.35 percent progress as of November, Japan will finance MRT-1 -- set to be country’s first underground metro rail. Japanese companies are doing most of the work.
MRT-1 -- from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kamalapur Railway Station -- would be built at a cost of Tk 52,561.43 crore.
The 31.24km route will have an elevated section from Notun Bazar to Purbachal. Officials expect the project to be completed by 2026.
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