Cyclone Remal Metro service faces disruption

Aritra Sarker, a private job holder and a regular user of metro rail, came to Uttara Center Station around 8:00am to go to Agargaon.

But he found the service to be suspended. He waited there for half an hour with no luck, and then tried to catch a CNG-run auto-rickshaw to reach his work at Shyamoli. He failed as they were not available due to inclement weather.

He was forced to return home.

Like Aritra, thousands of metro rail users, especially office-goers, suffered as the service got disrupted twice yesterday.

Earlier, on Saturday evening, metro rail services remained suspended from 6:41pm to 8:00pm.

The service has seen operational halt for at least 10 times since its launch in December 2022. During those periods, metro rail services were suspended for half an hour to over two hours.

MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, however, said such halt is also common for metro rail services in other countries and they were not responsible for most of the cases.

Yesterday, metro rail service remained suspended from 7:30am to 9:30am.

Then, the authority resumed the service partially and continued the partial operation till 11:00am.

“The disruption occurred due to a natural disaster. We started our operation in the morning but different objects started coming to the lines due to strong wind. We had to halt operations for safety, ” MAN Siddique said.

Metro rail operations on the Agargaon-Motijheel section were suspended at 5:00pm again due to some problem with the signaling system.

The operation between Uttara and Agargaon, however, remained normal, Siddique said.

However, the services resumed in full swing again two hours after the suspension, as per Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd.

Referring to Saturday’s incident, MAN Siddique said the electricity line, which supplies power to the signal system, failed and disrupted the service.

“We have backup lines but that can only operate trains for a short time… Interruption of power is causing the problem. The problem didn’t occur for four to five months before Saturday’s incident,” he added.

Asked whether people can lose confidence in metro rail service due to such disruption, he said they do not think so.

Asked about many passengers’ allegation that metro rail authorities did not notify them properly about service halts, Siddique said passengers inside trains and at stations were notified about the halt.

“We, however, don’t have the system to notify passengers outside the station,” he added.