Metro starts at 7:10am from Uttara today

The metro rail authorities will operate two additional trains from 7:10am and 7:20am today from the Uttara end mainly to facilitate the trips of students and teachers of different educational institutions.

However, the extended services would be available only for the MRT Pass/ Rapid Pass holders (permanent pass), Tarafdar Mahmudur Rahman, deputy project director (public relations) of Mass Rapid Transit Line, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Educational institutions usually open at 8:00am and many people requested the authorities to start metro operations at least half an hour earlier so that students and teachers can avail the service, said MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd.

"So, we are considering to start metro services from 7:00am," he said.

Currently, metro rails are being operated between 7:30am and 11:30am on Agargaon-Motijheel route. However, MRT Pass holders can avail the service until noon.

The Agargaon-Motijheel section of the country's first metro rail (MRT-6) opened to public on Sunday, generating huge interest among metro users, especially among the office goers.

At least 26,000 people used exit points at Motijheel, Secretariat and Farmgate stations on the first day, but the number of people who used the entry points at those stations was very low, MAN Siddique said.

The number of passengers using the exit points at those three stations increased further in the last two days, he added.

"So, we are going to increase one exit gate each at Farmgate, Secretariat and Motijheel stations to facilitate the trips of those passengers," he said.

The three stations are among the seven on Agargaon-Motijheel section currently open to passengers. The authorities have announced to open the Dhaka University station within a month and the rest three within next three months.

After making all stations operational, the authorities will increase both the service time and frequency of trains.