Metro rail service to resume on August 17

Metro rail operation is set to resume on August 17, nearly a month after the suspension amid violence centring the quota reform protest. 
However, the operation of two stations, Kazipara and Mirpur-10, which were vandalised on July 19, will remain suspended until those are repaired.
The advisory council of the interim government yesterday made the decision.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) restarts services with the operations of freight trains from today and the full train services will resume from Thursday.
Besides, the operation of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway resumed formally yesterday with the authorities collecting tolls from vehicles.
Operations of the metro rail and passengers’ trains had been suspended since July 18.
METRO
MAN Siddique, the managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, yesterday said they have begun preparing to resume operations.
They were expecting to start trial runs within a day or two, he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Asked about the two vandalised stations, he said the committee formed to assess the damage and all other technical issues was yet to submit a report.
“We are hoping the committee will submit the report soon, and we will move forward on the basis of the report.”
Attackers vandalised the two stations on July 19 and authorities at that time said it would take at least one year to make the stations operational.
Over three lakh commuters used to travel on the metro rail daily.
RAIL SERVICES
BR will resume railway operations from today, after more than three weeks.
The operations will restart with freight trains while mail, express, local, and commuter trains will start services from Tuesday and intercity trains from Thursday.
Tickets for intercity trains will be available online from 5:00pm today.
However, operation of Parabat Express and Jamalpur Express trains will remain suspended, Nahid Hasan Khan, director (public relations) of BR, said in a press release yesterday.
Operations of passenger trains were suspended on July 18 amid the violence. Some freight trains continued to run for one or two days after July 18.
In another development, the authorities of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway formally resumed its operation from 3:00pm yesterday, said an official.
However, entry ramps at Banani and Mohakhali and an exit ramp near the FDC gate (Karwan Bazar) will be closed.
“We have resumed formal operation of expressway by starting toll collection from vehicles at the airport ramp,” Captain (retd) Hasib Hasan Khan, manager (operations and maintenance) of First Dhaka Elevated Expressway Company Ltd, which operates the expressway, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Attackers torched the Banani toll booth on July 18 and the Mohakhali toll booth the following day amid unrest centring the quota reform protest. Toll collection had been suspended since then.
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, people started using the expressway without paying tolls as the toll collection mechanism was absent.
Hasib said they closed the two entry ramps at Banani and Mohakhali as the toll booths were torched. They also closed the exit ramp near the FDC gate as one of the expressway pillars there was set on fire. “We are checking the pillar … .”
The first elevated expressway was opened to traffic partially from the airport area to Farmgate in September last year, and the FDC exit was opened early this year, giving much relief to the city commuters.
On average, over 50,000 vehicles used the expressway daily.
BUS SERVICES
Long-route bus services resumed last week.
However, the number of passengers is very low, Mosharraf Hossain, general manager of Hanif Paribahan, told this correspondent yesterday.
He said they were operating 50 to 60 percent of buses in their fleet.