The Metro Rail authorities will run train after every 8 minutes during peak hours from Saturday, increasing the number of trips to 178 from 152 each day.

At present, the trains run every 10 minutes during peak hours and in every 12 minutes during off-peak hours. The new timings are applicable for peak hours only.

M A N Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), revealed this at a press conference at Metrorail Authority headquarters on Thursday afternoon.

He said that earlier the number of trains' trips were 152 every day, now it will increase to 178.

Metrorail headways or the time between two trains has been reduced by two minutes. Metrorail will operate from Saturday according to the new time schedules, he said.

Siddique said that currently metro trains carry about 2.70 lakh passengers on an average every day.

About the new timings, Siddque said, three trains will run from Uttara at 7:10 am to 7:30 am respectively from Saturday. This is a special off-peak. After that, the train will run after every 8 minutes during peak hours from 7:31 to 11:48. After that 11:49am to 3:12pm off peak hours after every12 minutes as before. Trains will run after every 8 minutes during peak hours from 3:13pm to 8:00 pm.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the first metro rail in Dhaka on December 28, 2022. At that time metro train was running from Uttara to Agargaon. Later the prime minister inaugurated the Agargaon to Motijheel section of the Metro Rail on November 4 last year. The next day, on November 5, metro rail service started from Uttara to Motijheel.