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Dhaka metro rail company is not getting cooperation from two government agencies causing a delay in starting the MRT-6 extension work up to Kamalapur Railway Station, sources said.
They said the company also finds problem convincing the existing contractors of the Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 (MRT-6) project to carry out the work on the extension part due to a variation in their work.
Sources said except Italian-Thai Development Public Limited Company known as ITD, two Japanese companies working under contract package 4 and 5 did not show interest in the proposal put forward by the DMTCL for the extension part. ITD is now working for CP 3 and 4.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) officially offered the contractors of the MRT-6 to do the extension work on variation as it has been incorporated in the middle of the MRT-6 project at the prime minister's intervention.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) was not allowing the entry of the MRT-6 and other lines within its station territory for having plans to set up a multimodal transport hub at the Kamalapur Railway Station under the public-private partnership initiative.
Official sources said as necessary study and detailed design work on the Motijheel-Kamalapur part have already been done, the DMTCL could start the work on 1.16 kilometres without any delay if negotiations with the existing contractors are held and the BR and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) give approval.
To save the time of the tender process, they said, the DMTCL prefers giving the work as variation.
But sources said ITD is not a 'preferable contractor' for carrying out the extension work due to slowness by the Thai company.
It is also learnt that the state-owned company is yet to get approval for the revised development project proposal which was submitted with an extension plan and proposal for land acquisition to increase the project cost by more than Tk 10 billion.
Though the Bangladesh Railway verbally agreed to set up the Kamalapur MRT station outside the Kamalapur iconic building, sources said, it is dragging its feet over giving its nod to the design DMTCL submitted by integrating the design with BR's MMTH.
When contacted, BR officials failed to give any reason for the delay. Even BR Director General did not respond to the call and message.
The DMTCL also sought permission from the DSCC to allow digging and using of the road to construct the Kamalapur station building for MRT- 6.
DMTCL started the construction work on MRT-6 in 2016 to set up 20.1-km elevated line from Uttara to Motijheel without giving any option of end station for commuters.
It has initially planned to take the line towards Sayedabad behind the Bangladesh Bank building but studies failed to find an adequate space for it.
Later, the DMTCL and experts proposed taking the line up to Kamalapur station in 2019, but BR opposed it initially.