Costs of two of the three ongoing projects for the construction of mass rapid transit lines, popularly known as metro rail, are likely to increase by about Tk 1,600 crore.
After the contractors of the MRT Line 6 project’s extension on the Motijheel-Kamalapur route increased the cost of the installation of all systems, the authorities concerned are now analysing an offer for raising the project cost by about Tk 191 crore to Tk 976 crore.
For the MRT Line 1 project, the estimated cost is to be increased by about Tk 1,400 crore to Tk 53,977 crore due to land acquisition.
Project officials said that the cost of the MRT Line 1 project was going to increase following the inclusion of building a construction yard, site offices and a station plaza on 18 acres of land in Aftabnagar area in the project.
‘Initially, these were not in the plan,’ they said.
The deadlines for the three ongoing projects that also include the MRT Line 5 are also likely to be extended due to sluggish pace of the projects.
Officials of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, the implementing agency of the metro rail system, said that they would likely to start metro train services to Kamalapur by the fourth quarter of 2026, originally scheduled for December 2025.
The utility relocation work of the MRT Line 1 project has remained halted for about two months due to traffic congestion in the capital’s Natun Bazar, Badda and Aftabnagar areas.
DMTCL managing director Faruque Ahmed said that the proposal for increasing the MRT Line 6 extension project cost was given due to the local currency devaluation and price rise of land and materials.
Proposal was also given to extend the project deadline till December 2028 for a major overhaul of the 24-set of metro trains, he mentioned.
For the MRT Line 1 the proposal for increasing the cost was given due to land acquisition, he said.
‘In no country the construction of a metro line is completed before six to seven years,’ he said, adding, ‘I do not know which project in Bangladesh was completed in time.’
The work to build a network of about 141 kilometres of six MRT lines, comprising both elevated and underground ones, by 2030 started in 2016 in the Dhaka city to reduce traffic congestion and improve the environment in the capital and its suburbs.
Out of the six projects, metro trains are now running on the Uttara–Motijheel portion of the elevated MRT Line 6 project. The portion took about six years to be completed.
The construction work of two more lines started in 2023 with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the government of Bangladesh as the financers, while the construction work of three more lines are yet to start.
The MRT Line 5 was scheduled to have two routes — northern and southern — but the interim government has planned to ditch the MRT Line 5 southern route, citing that it would be less useful.
DMTCL officials said that after the August 2024 political changeover, some of the projects went slow due to delays in JICA approvals and bidding processes.
On August 5, 2024, the authoritarian Awami League regime was ousted in a mass uprising and the interim government assumed office on August 8.
The construction of the 21.26-kilometre MRT Line 6 on the Uttara–Kamalapur route began in 2016.
Metro rail services on the Uttara–Agargaon section was inaugurated on December 28, 2022, which were later extended to Motijheel.
For the extension of the route to Kamalapur, the project is being implemented under two packages – civil and installation of all systems like tracks, electrical and signalling systems. The extension project deadline is this December.
A contract has been signed for Tk 511 crore with the contractors for the civil package.
As of May, the progress of the civil works of the Motijheel-Kamalapur section was 55.5 per cent.
The contractor of the second package, Marubeni (Japan)-L&T (India) joint-venture which also worked for the main project, proposed Tk 651 crore in July 2024 for the work.
As per the detailed project proposal, formed in 2020 and approved in 2022, the estimated cost for the second package was Tk 274 crore. During the project approval, the rate of the dollar was Tk 84.8. on Wednesday, the dollar rate was Tk 123.
Following negotiations by the interim government, the JV offered Tk 465 crore for the work in June.
The 31.241-kilometre MRT Line 1, on the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport-Kamalapur route, will be the first underground metro rail system in Bangladesh and its construction work started on February 2, 2023, while its deadline is December 2026.
Till June, the overall project progress was about 6 per cent.
In the next revised DPP, the increased cost would be included, said the sources.
While the land development works for the Pitalganj depot under the package 1 was completed, the calling of tenders for 11 other packages of the project are in process.
Once the procedures are completed, a new deadline for the project will be set, said project office sources.
The project’s utility relocation works in Notun Bazar, Badda, Uttar Badda and Aftabnagar areas are now suspended.
The sources said that officials of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Dhaka North City Corporation requested them to start the works at first in Bashundhara and Aftabnagar areas.
The construction of the 20-kilomgere MRT Line 5’s Northern Route, on Hemayetpur-Bhatara route, started on November 4, 2023 with an estimated cost of Tk 41,239 crore and the December 2028 deadline.
The progress of the land development works for the depot at Hemayetpur was 54.04 per cent till this May while tenders for other nine works are now in process.
‘I believe we will run trains from Uttara to Kamalapur by the fourth quarter of 2026 if we can sign the contract for the installation of all systems by this month,’ Faruque said.
He also said that at present it was not possible to appoint new contractors for the MRT Line 6 extension as such as action would delay the project by about two years.
Replying to a question on the slow pace of these projects, Faruque said that it was not their intention to sign contracts only but to achieve the optimum benefits from the contracts.
