JICA writes to govt for kick-starting project works

Six years already lost in the labyrinth of procrastination, the Japanese funding agency has now reminded government authorities of Bangladesh about the urgency of expediting implementation of the mainline MRT-1 and MRT-5 metro-rail projects in Dhaka.

Officials said Saturday the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) recently wrote to Road Transport and Bridges Adviser of the interim government Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan for taking initiative to expedite the two under-construction MRT lines stuck in toils of dilemma.

The JICA has also sent the copies of the letter to Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, the ERD Secretary and the DMTCL Managing Director.

The Japanese lender has claimed that both the projects have been delayed inordinately due to several complexities which have to be removed and the works have to be completed before 2030, said a Road Transport and Bridges official.

"The JICA has recently sent a letter to our Adviser suggesting the acceleration of both the MRT-line projects it is bankrolling," said the ministry official, requesting anonymity.

Since Bangladesh is failing to utilize the JICA -assured financial support, the lender has reminded the Bangladesh government about speeding up the project execution, he added.

The Japanese agency used to keep aside a certain amount of its assured funds for the particular year and engage Japanese experts. "So, if the funds and the experts are not utilized in time for the ongoing MRT projects, the lender once would revise its funding proposal," the official says.

Meanwhile, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has so far failed to start physical works of the MRT-1 and MRT-5 (north) lines although those were approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) six years ago in October 2019 and in December 2019 respectively.

For both the projects, the JICA has made commitment to provide the lion's share of the costs.

In June 2022, JICA confirmed a loan of $979.8 million (JPY 133,399 million) for the construction of the 20km MRT-5 northern line from Hemayetpur to Vatara which was part of a larger $1.22 billion loan package for the entire development projects.

Out of the Tk539.77-billion cost of the MTR-1 project, Tk 394.50 billion is being financed by JICA, and the rest Tk145.26 billion from government's local resources.

Although, the government approved the MRT-1 project, to be constructed from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kamalapur Railway Station at a cost of Tk 525.61 billion, the works were formally started in February 2023.

The 20-km-long MRT-5 (north), to be constructed from Hemayetpur to Bhatara, passing through Aminbazar, Gabtoli, Mirpur, Kochukhet, Banani, Gulshan, and Natunbazar, was endorsed with Tk 412.38-billion cost. Physical works, excepting land acquisition for depot, are yet to start, officials said.

According to DMTCL's August 2025 report, it has so far been able to hire contractors for one of the 12 packages under the MRT-1 project. The contractor is working to develop the depots.

The remaining 11 packages, mostly for key construction works, are now under the tendering process. Some bids are received from the contractors but yet to be finalised and contracts are awarded, DMTCL said.

Similarly, the company so far couldn't complete tendering process for 9 out of 10 packages. Only the package 01 is awarder under which a contractor is working to develop the depots at Hemayetpur, the western side of the capital, Dhaka.

According to a JICA report, the construction of MRT Line 1 started in February 2023 with land development for a depot in Purbachal, located at the end of the branch line in the eastern suburbs, 25 km from the city centre of Dhaka.

Construction work on the main line from the airport to Kamalapur Station, which will be underground, has not yet commenced. Another line that has already started construction is the MRT Line-5 North. This line is the first east-west MRT line in Dhaka and will connect major residential areas and business centres in the northern half of Dhaka.

The depot land development for Line-5 North started in November 2023 in the western suburbs, around 20km from the city. At the time of writing, no construction work for MRT lines interferes with the road-traffic corridors in urban Dhaka.

Both Line 1 and Line 5 North are expected to start their commercial operations by the late 2020s, the JICA report says.

A couple of Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges officials told the FE that the delays in the construction of Dhaka's MRT-1 and MRT-5 North lines are primarily due to administrative hurdles, including stalled board approvals for contracts, disagreements over bidding prices, technical challenges with MRT-6, and delays in securing financing and foreign loan approvals from financiers like JICA.

Besides, depreciation of the USD is another reason for the escalating project cost, they said.

Meanwhile, the new Managing Director of DMTCL, Faruque Ahmed, has recently claimed that MRT-5 North is in "good shape". The overall expansion plan for Dhaka's metro network faces significant setbacks, with officials attributing the delays to a lack of skilled personnel and inefficient project management.

When asked, an additional secretary at the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry told the FE that they were trying to expedite the project-implementation work keeping in mind the 2030 as the deadline for completion.

"The bidding prices of some packages for both the projects were so high that we need to renegotiate with the selected contractors for the works," he said.

In some cases, the approval process from the lender is so long that it is also affecting the overall works, the additional secretary, preferring anonymity, added.

Meanwhile, DMTCL already constructed the MRT line-6 in 2023 and opened to passengers although its Motijheel-to-Kamalapur portion of the Uttara- Kamalapur line is yet to be completed.