The Metro rail under construction is being implemented in two steps- in the first, the rail will run from Uttara to Agargaon and in the second, from Agargaon to Motijheel.
With the start of the Uttara to Agargaon route, passengers to Farmgate will be given the feeder service.
Project sources feel that people will get benefit of the project from next year. The full work of the project will be done by 2020.
Metrotail will run from Uttara to Agargaon from December, 2019. From Uttara to Motijheel, 770 spans will be established for 20.1 km rail line with 16 stations. Fourteen pairs of trains will operate in this line and each train will carry 1696 passengers. Of the total passengers, 942 will be seated while the rest will be standing. Running at 100 km per hour, it will go from uttara to Motijheel in 37 minutes, with a train leaving every four minutes.
Built at a cost of Tk. 22000 crore, Tk. 16,594 crore is given as assistance by JICA while the rest is provided by the government.
Relevant officials say that the rationale behind two stages is that if faults are noticed in the first stage then they will be rectified in the second.
The metro rail came with the promise to save fuel and reduce jam on the roads. The work was inaugurated by prime-minister Sheikh Hasina on 26 June, 2016, but due to fast progress of work, it may be completed four years before the initially projected time.