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A new schedule for Dhaka’s metro rail will be implemented on a trial basis from Friday.
Rail service is being extended by an hour, with trains scheduled to start a half hour earlier in the morning and the last train at night to depart half an hour later than the previous time, bdnews24.com reports.
Currently, the first train leaves Uttara North station at 7:10am and the last train leaves at 9:30pm. According to the new schedule, the first train will leave Uttara North at 6:40am and the last train will leave at 9:30 pm. The first train from Motijheel will set off at 7:00am and the last train will start at 10:10pm.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) Managing Director Faruk Ahmed told bdnews24.com: “We have planned to increase the number of trains and service hours to meet passenger demand for a long time. Now that we have the manpower, it is possible to implement it.”
"A new timetable will be introduced on a trial basis from Friday. We have started this trial programme to see if the new timetable is workable. We hope that, if everything goes well, this timetable can be implemented regularly by December."
Along with the new timetable, the interval between trains during peak hours is also being reduced. Currently, trains are available every six minutes during peak hours.
But, according to the new timetable, trains will run at intervals of 4 minutes and 15 seconds. This means trains will be available at intervals of 4 minutes and 15 seconds during peak hours.
The metro rail was launched in Dhaka on Dec 28, 2022. Currently, passengers board and disembark along the line from Uttara North Station to Motijheel. The capacity of the metro rail will increase further when the extension work to Kamalapur Railway Station is completed.
The metro rail carries an average of 420,000 passengers a day. On Aug 6, a maximum of 456,746 passengers used the service. Authorities believe that if the new timetable is implemented, the number of passengers can exceed 500,000 per day.