A move has been taken to connect the city's two metro rails in a bid to build a circular route by joining missing links from both sides of mass rapid transit lines.
Sources said Dhaka Mass Transit Company (DMTC) has taken the move to connect MRT-6 with MRT-1 from both starting and ending points aiming to facilitate passenger traffic.
DMTC is exploring the possibility of setting up an elevated walkway from Motijheel Shapla Chattar to Kamalapur Railway Station and an underground rail link from Airport Station to Uttara, they added.
"A feasibility study will show us how the link between two MRTs would be established," said an official.
He said covering the missing link will help passengers of both MRTs travel more than 52 kilometres after they get on trains from any stations.
MRT-6 passengers will not get desired mode of transport after alighting at Uttara and Motijheel Shapla Chattar due to lack of its linkage with the multimodal transport hubs.
MRT-1 will have multimodal transport hubs (MTHs) on both sides as the Bangladesh Railway has already taken a move to transform Airport and Kamalapur Railway Stations into MTHs.
DMTC is now carrying out a detailed design work on 26.6-kilometre MRT-1 from Airport Station to Kamalapur Station through Pragati Sarani.
Initially, the authority planned to build a 20.1-km MRT-6 line from Uttara to Sayedabad with an aim to establish a multimodal transport hub at Sayedabad.
But at its design stage, the route of MRT-6 was changed from High Court crossing after they allowed construction of Hanif Flyover.
On the recommendation of the government, consultants ended the line till Motijheel Shapla Chattar due to lack of enough space.
According to an initial plan devised by DMTC, it would need to build a 6.80-km line to establish link between the two MRTs. The distance from Motijheel to Kamalapur Railway Station is 0.5 km and from Airport Railway Station to Uttara is 6.3 km.
The government has planned to set up five MRTs in the city under its 25-year strategic transport plan.
MRT-6, the first metro rail, is now being constructed in an elevated way. But the authority has planned to construct MRT-1 mostly underground.
Construction work of MRT-6 is scheduled to be completed by 2024 while that of MRT-1 by 2026, the officials said, adding that the link between the two MRTs is likely to be established by 2028.
smunima@yahoo.com