Metro rail will be added to Dhaka's public transport later this year. This project will actively work on changing the transport system of Dhaka city. How will the metro rail be? What are the benefits? How safe will it be? There is no shortage of interest and questions of the people about the dream project! Metro rail will bring a lot of benefits for city dwellers. For example, with the Metrorail, it will take about 38 minutes to reach Motijheel from Uttara.

Dhaka Metro Rail: The Prospective Benefits and Advantages

We have listed the benefits we will enjoy from the metro rail in the next few years. Read on to know them.

Get rid of traffic

'Traffic jam' and 'Dhaka' have become synonymous. The reality of traffic congestion in the capital has reached such a level that you will know the journey time for sure, but you will not know not the arrival time. It is difficult to calculate how many measures have been taken to bring traffic congestion to a tolerable level, including widening of flyovers, lanes, and roads. But there is no relief from traffic jams and misery. The situation is deteriorating day by day. When the people of Dhaka city are in a state of frustration in this deterioration, metro rail seems to come as a remedy for Dhaka's traffic.

Read Bangladesh Braces to Finish Dhaka Metro Rail Project

If Metrorail is launched, it will save transportation time and reduce traffic jams at the same time. The metro rail will run at 100 mph and will reach Motijheel from Uttara in 38 minutes. The train will leave every four minutes. 60,000 passengers per hour will be able to travel from both directions.

Therefore, people's valuable time will be saved and traffic jams will be less as the citizens will sue the rail service. So, the pressure on the road will be reduced.

Job opportunities

Metrorail operation and maintenance costs are comparatively much higher. Therefore, the authorities want to make way for income by constructing hub stations as an additional benefit to reduce losses. Metrorail has bought 26 acres of land for the construction of the hub station. Metro rail authorities want to have a total of six hub stations, one at the beginning of six lines under Mass Rapid Transit.

Read One step closer to completing historic Metro Rail project in Bangladesh: Japan

Authorities are planning to set up a hub across the capital around the metro rail. To make the project profitable, a metro hub station will be constructed for the passengers with state-of-the-art facilities like amusement parks, daily commodity markets, and shopping malls. 

Initially, an initiative has been taken to build this hub station near Station-2 in Uttara. So, building the hub station will create new job opportunities. Further, manpower will also be needed for maintenance, so it will create new jobs too.

Read Metro Rail Job Opening 2021: The time for submission of application in Metrorail has been extended

The population will be reduced from Dhaka city

 If Metro Rail is launched, it will be a big advantage for the general people. They don't have to rent a house in Dhaka city and pay a huge amount of rent. Instead, people can live outside of the main city and travel easily to their workplaces. That way, you don't have to rent with that much money in Moghbazar, Motijheel. If you want, you can rent a house in Gazipur for less money and come to Motijheel comfortably. Hence this will be life-changing.

Financial benefit

Metro rail will save 200 billion takas or $2.4 billion a year, which is equivalent to 17% of the total tax revenue of Bangladesh or 1.5% of GDP. Due to the traffic jam, the country faces colossal economic loss, and Dhaka is on the top in terms of loss. Annually, Dhaka city faces a loss of $4.4 billion due to traffic congestion. So, the launch of the metro rail will save that money. According to the Accident Research Institute director, "Bangladesh could have saved $2.6 billion if it had reduced 60% of traffic congestion in Dhaka."

Read Padma Bridge, Metro Rail opening to public within June 2022: Quader

Reduction on pollution

At present, air pollution has become severe in Dhaka and other major cities. Dust, black smoke, etc., released from unfit vehicles, are widely responsible for air pollution in Dhaka. Expired cars mainly emit a significant amount of black smoke that has been identified as one of the prime causes of air pollution. 

Metro rail will surely reduce the number of public vehicles on the road. Therefore, the potential air pollution will be reduced. A well-planned metro rail with the improved bus service may force to reduce the number of private cars on the road. So, if the private cars and public transport are reduced the overall pollution in Dhaka city will be reduced significantly.

Everything in the stations

Each station will have Ticket counters, lounges, automated food stalls, prayer places, waste management plants, operation and maintenance rooms, automatic monitoring system in case of non-ticket or extra tickets, firefighting system, climbing stairs, escalators (stationary escalator), lifts, and more. So, there would be immense possibilities of creating employment opportunities and sources of income for many people.

Read ‘Mockup’ Metro Rail coach arrives in city

A brief of the metro rail project

Dhaka’s first-ever metro rail is MRT-6, which will start from Uttara and finished at Kamalapur via Mirpur, Farmgate, and Motijheel. Metrorail project's 11.29 km length area, spanning from Uttara to Agargaon was supposed to be done by December 2021. Metro railroad from Agargaon to Kamalapur, covering 11km length, was targeted to be completed by 2023. Work is underway to bring it forward. 

Apart from this, Dhaka metro rail has five more projects, which will be developed gradually.

Each of the compartments of the train has seating for 54 people. During peak hours, a total of 2,308 people can sit and stand on a train. Furthermore, one thousand 736 people will be able to travel in normal time. Each train will have a special compartment for women. There will also be a wheelchair for the disabled next to the door of each compartment.

Read Special police unit to ensure metro rail security: PM

Final words

Metro rail is no less than a dream for Dhaka city which is burdened with multifarious problems in the road communication sector like narrow roads, traffic jams, lack of enough public transport, high cost of private vehicles, etc. And the dream comes true as the Dhaka Metro Rail project is about to finish and be visible. Moreover, the experimental operation of metro rail has been started. So, we are very close to witnessing a milestone for Bangladesh.