Metro rail’s Mirpur 10 station to reopen in mid-October

The metro rail operation is likely to resume at Mirpur 10 Station by the middle of this month, said the metro rail operating company the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) on Tuesday (October 8).

Following a meeting on Tuesday, DMTCL’s company secretary Khondker Ehteshamul Kabir said efforts were going on to resume metro rail operation at Mirpur 10 station within the current month. “We hope that the station will resume operation some time at the second half of this month of October. The test run will be conducted immediately after the next October 11 or 12,” he said.

During the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement on July 18 last, demonstrators set police box at Mirpur 10 Golchakkar on fire. The black smoke of the fire had spread to the metro station.

Then the metro rail was closed in the afternoon of that day. On the following day, it was weekly holiday of Friday and metro rail operation was closed. But the vandalism at metro rail’s Kazipara and Mirpur 10 stations happened in the afternoon of that day. As a result, huge damages were done to both the stations and their uses were suspended.

In July, after vandalism at Mirpur 10 and Kazipara stations, then road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader claimed that it would take one year to repair these two stations.

At that time, officials concerned also said that the total damage to Mirpur 10 and Kazipara stations was around Tk 500 crore, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported on July 30.

Meanwhile, the metro rail services resumed at the Kazipara station on September 19 after around two months which had been repaired at a cost of Tk 20.5 lakh.

DMTCL under road transport and bridges ministry, is the implementing agency of the country’s first-ever electricity-powered elevated and air-conditioned rail system on the 20.1-kilometre-long Uttara–Motijheel route in the capital.

On July 19, vending machines, ticket counters, offices, police control rooms, computers, television screens and close circuit cameras inside the Mirpur 10 and Kazipara stations were vandalised.

The authorities closed down metro rail services for an indefinite period from July 20 and the services resumed on August 25.

The company managing director Md Abdur Rouf told Tuesday that they had almost completed all the repair work at the Mirpur 10 station.

‘We will conduct a test run through the station on October 10 to check the safety issues at the station and if everything is okay, the station will be reopened for the public within this month,’ he said.

He said that they had repaired the station by buying some local products like computers and tinted glasses.