50 double-decker buses to provide shuttle service

Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has readied 50 double-decker buses to provide shuttle services to metro rail passengers as the country's first metro rail service is going to be launched on December 28.

BRTC buses will have two routes at first stage -- one is Agargaon-Farmgate-Shahbagh-Motijheel-- while another route would be Diabari to Housebuilding in capital Uttara.

"We will start trial run of buses within a day or two; and will start providing shuttle services on the day metro rail authorities will start carrying passengers," BRTC Spokesperson Amjad Hossain told The Daily Star yesterday.

BRTC will provide the services following an agreement signed with Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL), the implementing and operating agency of the metro rail, last month, he added. 

DMTCL has arranged the shuttle bus services as they are going to launch partial operation of country's first ever metro rail formally known as Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 or MRT Line-6 from Uttara to Agargaon.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will open the new mode of public transport on December 28 and the city dwellers can avail the service from the following day.

Transport experts, however, feared that partial operation of metro rail may intensify traffic congestion at the Agargaon point and the lack of planning might harm metro rail service.

It may take up to December next year to open the Agargaon to Motijheel section.

Agargaon is already a congested area. The partial operation of metro rail will intensify the traffic congestion there due to the lack of space for a bus stoppage, they said.

DMTCL and BRTC on November 17 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for providing the service and as per the MoU, BRTC buses will charge the fare like a usual city-service buses.

BRTC, as per the MoU, is supposed to start trial service at least one week before the beginning of metro rail operation. The tenure of the MoU will be December 31, 2030. However, the deadline can be changed upon discussion, it said.

Although, MRT Line-6 project was approved in 2012, construction work of the fast-track project started in September 2016 under eight packages.

For now, the 11.73km section of the metro rail from Uttara to Agargaon would be opened. The remaining 8km from Agargaon to Motijheel will be in operation by December next year. The other one km extended part from Motijheel to Kamalapur would be inaugurated by June 2025.

Metro rail authorities, following international practice, will start the service on a limited scale in at first and go for full-operation within three months.

The original cost of the project was Tk 21,985 crore, but it rose to Tk 33,472 crore after revision. The escalation is owed to acquiring new land to change the stations' design and building the extended part.