Karwan Bazar and Shahbagh stations of the Dhaka metro rail will be open to the public from December 31.
From that day the metro will stop at these two stations and run according to the current schedule, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) Company Secretary Md Abdur Rouf told UNB on Thursday.
The previously opened stations are Farmgate, Secretariat, Motijheel, Dhaka University, and Bijoy Sarani.
At present, the metro rail is running on the Uttara-Motijheel-Uttara route from 7:30 am to 12:00 pm. On the Uttara-Agargaon-Uttara route, it operates from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm.
In the next three months, trains will run till night like the Diabari-Agargaon section in this section, said MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), at a press conference at the DMTCL office in the capital’s Eskaton.
Last year, during the trial run, the movement of metro rail trains was disrupted due to a flying lantern (fanush) falling on the catenary of the metro rail on the night of December 31. Therefore, a letter has been sent to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner to take steps to stop the flying of lanterns, said DMTCL MD.
It has been requested to stop flying fanush in a one-kilometre area on both sides of the metro rail line, he added.
Two to five percent of the passengers are unable to board the train during peak hours due to the overcrowding. For this, the managing director has requested to follow the rules for getting on the train.
Earlier on December 13, Dhaka University and Bijoy Sarani stations were opened as the 13th and 14th stations, respectively.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country’s first-ever metro rail’s service from Agargaon to Motijheel on November 4.
