300-feet expressway needs to be excavated for building MRT-1: DMTCL

Many spots on the 300-feet Purbachal Expressway will need to be excavated while building Mass Rapid Transit-1 (MRT-1) line, the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has said.

The MRT-1 project has two parts - underground metro rail and elevated metro rail.

The elevated MRT-1 line will begin from Kuril Flyover on the west and end at Kanchan Bridge on the east, DMTCL said in a press statement on Wednesday (February 19).

There will be spans of the viaducts at regular intervals, and the distance of the spans will be 30 metres to 45 metres. These spans will be built on the road divider in the middle of the expressway.

DMTCL said the expressway will not be affected and the vehicular movement will not be restricted during the construction of the elevated MRT-1 line as the viaducts will be erected on the road divider.

"The metro rail stations will be built on three columns across the expressway. The decision to build elevated MRT-1 line has been taken and approved by the government after proper inspection."

The route alignment of MRT-1 was proposed in the Revised Strategic Transport Plan (RSTP) in 2015, while the feasibility study was conducted based on this plan in 2017-18. However, there was no plan to build Purbachal Expressway in the RSTP, according to the press release.