TDS Desk:

Metro rail will run on Fridays from this week as per the demand of the passengers, said Mohammad Abdur Rouf, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL).

“Efforts are underway to run metro rail on weekly holidays from this Friday (20 September) following the decision of the ministry,” Rouf told that Tuesday (17 September).

He said the authorities also expect that the metro trains will stop at Kazipara station from Friday (20 September) as it is being ready for operational activities.

During the ‘Complete Shutdown’ programme of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, miscreants vandalised Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations in the evening of 19 July.

They vandalised everything including the station’s ticket vending machine and passenger entry punch machine at the main station, which forced to keep closed the two stations for 37 days.

The metro rail operations resumed on 25 August but the two stations remained closed.

The DMTCL managing director said the authorities have been relentlessly working to prepare the two stations for passengers.

Earlier, the estimated cost for repairing those stations was Tk300 crore, but later a committee was formed to further scrutinise the repairing cost.

“We hope that the repairing cost of those stations will reduce as we are procuring equipment from local market,” he said.

He further said the final repair cost will be estimated after getting report of the review committee.

According to relevant sources, the authorities have taken the initiative to renovate and open two closed stations. As a result, Kazipara station can be opened on 20 September, while Mirpur-10 station will take a few more months to become operational.