0
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved three metro rail projects for the capital. The projects were greenlit at an ECNEC meeting held on Wednesday, September 16. Prime Minister and ECNEC Chairperson Tareq Rahman presided over the meeting.
The approved projects are Metro Rail Line-5 Southern Route, Metro Rail Line-1, and Metro Rail Line-5 Northern Route.
Officials familiar with the projects stated that the total cost for implementing these three metro rail projects will be approximately 2.5 lakh crore Taka.
Among the projects, revised expenditure proposals for MRT Line-1 (Airport-Kamalapur) and MRT Line-5 Northern (Hemayetpur-Bhatara), funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), have been approved. Additionally, the new MRT Line-5 Southern (Gabtoli-Dasherkandi) project, jointly financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and South Korea, also received approval.
According to Planning Commission sources, initially, only the MRT Line-5 Southern project was slated for presentation on ECNEC’s main agenda. However, considering the aspect of integrated progress, a decision was made to present the proposals for revising the expenditure and duration of the JICA-funded MRT Line-1 and MRT Line-5 Northern projects at the same meeting.
The total cost for implementing the 31.24-kilometer-long MRT Line-1, financed by JICA, has been estimated at 1 lakh 14 thousand 394 crore 89 lakh Taka.
For the 20-kilometer-long MRT Line-5 Northern project, the total estimated expenditure is 89 thousand 848 crore 36 lakh Taka.
On the other hand, the estimated cost for the MRT Line-5 Southern project, with a total length of 17.20 kilometers including 13.10 kilometers of underground path, is 45 thousand 503 crore Taka.
Collectively, these three metro rail projects are set to bring significant changes to the public transportation system of the capital.