Staff Correspondent

The final test for reopening the much-awaited Mirpur-10 metro rail station, massively damaged by miscreants during the students-people uprising, will be conducted tomorrow.

"We will conduct final test for reopening Mirpur -10 metro station at 6am tomorrow after repairing and replacement of partially and fully damaged equipment," Mohammad Abdur Rouf, Managing Director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) told BSS here today.

He said the Mirpur-10 station was repaired quickly considering the demand of the commuters. We've to relocate some equipment from other non-busy stations to Mirpur-10 station to make it fit for operation as it witnesses a huge rush of passengers.

"We have completed repair and replacement work of the station with our own logistic support and budgetary allocation. We didn't seek money from the government," said Abdur Rouf.

Earlier, the cost for repairing the two stations - Kazipara and Mirpur-10- were estimated at Tk 300 crore, but later, a committee was formed to further scrutinize the repair cost.

"We have successfully reduced the repair cost for Kazipara station and completed the repair work at Taka 20.26 crore only. The repair and replacement cost for Mirpur-10 station will be higher than Kazipara station, as it witnessed a massive damage," the managing director added.

According to the metro rail details, during the 'Complete Shutdown' programme enforced by the anti-discrimination student movement, miscreants vandalized Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations on July 19.

They vandalized everything including the station's ticket vending machine, passenger entry punch machine at the main station, which forced the authorities to shut down the two stations for 37 days.

The metro rail started operation again on August 25, but the two stations remained closed. Kazipara station resumed operation on September 20.