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Half the capacity of the mass rapid transit (MRT) line-6 has remained unutilised despite huge passenger pressure following the inauguration of its daylong operation since Saturday.
Metro-rail-company sources have attributed the passenger pressure at the terminals to the unavailability of adequate rapid travel pass.
Officials said passenger pressure in the stations would be reduced within two weeks when single-journey-ticket users would be shifted to regular card-based passengers.
"The crowds at ticket counters and machines would be reduced within 15 days as the sale of the MRT pass has already been increased," said metro-rail-company secretary Mohammad Abdur Rouf.
The MRT pass use will also speed up the movement at the entry gate.
According to available data, the sales of single-journey tickets were reduced in the last four days - 161,008 on Saturday, 141,630 on Sunday, 130,136 on Monday and 125,668 on Tuesday.
During the period, 27,490 MRT passes were sold which means reducing queue in front of single-journey tickets' machines.
Officials say Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) designs the 20-km MRT-06 with 60,000 ridership per hour, including the daily capacity of 500,000, after the full-fledged operation from dawn to 10:00 or 11:00 pm.
But, they expect the situation improvement after reducing train arrival gap to 4 minutes from the present 10 minutes during peak hours and 12 minutes during off-peak hours.
Since time of two parts of the MRT 6 synchronised for operation from 7:10am to 8:00pm on Saturday, pressure of passengers during both peak and off-peak hour increased to average 242,000 from 150,000.
According to official data, operating trains with 10 and 12 minutes intervals, the MRT got 234,501 passengers on Saturday, 249.075 on Sunday, 249,927 on Monday and 233,195 on Tuesday.
The company secretary, however, said income from the ticket sales cannot be counted now as money used in the MRT pass would not be utilised. Also its record remains in the clearing house under another agency named Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority.