The 19.87km underground section from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kamalapur railway station and the 11.36km branch from Natun Bazar to Purbachal Terminal, which will be mostly elevated, make up the US$5.2bn Dhaka Metro Line 1 Project, which will be the largest infrastructure project in Bangladesh’s urban transportation sector.
According to a contract signed between JICA and the Bangladeshi government in July 2022, the Bangladeshi government will contribute Taka 131.1 billion toward the project’s cost, and Taka 394.5 billion will be given by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a soft loan.
The Dhaka MRT Line 1 project will be finished by the end of 2026, according to M A N Siddique, Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company (DMTCL).
According to him, when Line 1 is fully operational, trips from the Airport to Kamalapur will take slightly more than 24 minutes, with stops at 12 stations, and trips from Natun Bazar to Purbachal will take slightly less than 20 minutes, with stops at seven stations. The Natun Bazar, which is scheduled to open in 2028, will serve as an interchange station for both MRT Line 1’s Northern Route and both of its portions.
By 2030, the capital city of Dhaka will have six new metro rail lines open for service. Included in this are Line 2, which won’t open until 2030, and the second phase of Line 6, which will open this year. The Northern Route of Line 5 is anticipated to open in 2028, followed by the Southern Route in 2030, according to Siddique. Line 4 is also anticipated to open in 2030.
Dhaka MRT Line 6’s first phase will officially begin operations on December 28, 2022, according to the Bangladeshi government. It is believed that this system was the nation’s first metro rail system.