Underground trains are expected to transport passengers in Dhaka in 2026

The government’s Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd plans to launch underground train services in 2026 following the start of the construction work in 2022.

As many as 800,000 passengers will commute through the underground lines daily once the project is completed at an estimated cost of Tk 525.61 billion, the company’s Managing Director MAN Siddique says.

The tracks will be set up in two parts – one fully underground on a 19.87 kilometres stretch from Airport Railway Station to Kamalapur Railway Station and the other on an 11.36 kilometres stretch from Kamalapur to Purbachal.   

The authorities will buy 25 trains with eight coaches each for the underground services, Siddique said at a virtual media briefing on Thursday.

Each train will have a capacity to carry 3,088 passengers at a time and they will stop at 21 stations. 

The DMTCL has begun the process to set up a depot in Rupganj’s Pitolganj for the underground trains under MRT-1 project. The depot’s land and infrastructure development will be done in 12 packages.

Siddique said the construction will begin after the end of the tender process by September, as per a bdnews24.com report.

Earlier, officials at the Economic Relations Division said Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA agreed to fund the underground train project.

Siddique said the government has taken initiatives to set up metro rail lines on six routes in and around Dhaka by 2030 to ease traffic congestion.

The work to complete one of the routes, from Uttara to Motijheel, has progressed much. The authorities hope to open the Uttara-Agargaon portion of the route within a year.

Trials of train cars have recently been conducted at the depot in Uttara’s Diabari.