Dhaka Bureau: The Secretary Committee has finally approved the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Police Force with 231 personnel to ensure the safety of Metrorail. A proposal to form a specialized Mass Rapid Transit, or MRT, police unit was approved on Sunday (April 30). DMTCL has also entered into an agreement with A2I to have one digi-box at each station. The managing director of DMTCL, MA N Siddique, confirmed the matter.
It is known that Purbachal will be the MRT police headquarters. The unit will be headed by a Deputy Inspector General (DIG). An organizational structure of 231 persons, including the Additional Deputy Inspector General, Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police, Inspector (Unarmed), Inspector (Armed), SI, ASI, Naik, Constable, Accountant, Assistant Accountant, and Computer Operator, has been approved in addition to the MRT Police Chief. Unit members will have separate uniforms. Vehicles are also proposed for the unit. However, the proposal will go to the Prime Minister’s Office. This unit will be launched after receiving approval from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Besides, land has been identified for the construction of the head office of this force in the Pitalganj depot area of MRT Line 1. Five metrorails will be launched gradually as state-of-the-art public transport in a total area of 128 kilometers in the Dhaka metropolis and surrounding areas. A total of 104 stations will be built in this network of DMTCL. 51 of these will be aerial, and 53 will be underground. In the first phase, the section from Diabari to Agargaon in Uttar Pradesh is being launched today. Every metro rail station will have ATM booths, electrical equipment, and shops. When it is fully operational, hundreds of thousands of passengers will travel every day. For this, police outposts have been proposed at each station.
Meanwhile, DMTCL Manager (Civil & P-Way) Muhammad Shahjahan said about the digi-box: “Installation of digi-boxes at stations is a program of A2I. It is a kind of box that performs digitally. This will include the delivery products. By digitally opening the box with a code, the passenger can pick up the product during the journey. We have provided space for it outside the concourse level of the station. We signed an agreement with A2I today for nine stations. They will start working tomorrow. So far, they have identified six places where no changes are needed. The rest they will make according to the space provided by the station.
Incidentally, police headquarters and Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) sources said that initially plans were made to manage the safety of Metro Rail under the Railway Police. However, in the project implementation progress meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on September 16, 2019, the Prime Minister ordered the rapid formation of an independent, specialized MRT police force to ensure the safety of the Metro Rail. In mid-2021, the police headquarters sent a proposal to the home ministry to set up a manpower structure of 809 members to form the MRT police unit. After the approval of the Ministry of Public Administration and Finance Department, the proposal for the creation of the post was sent to the meeting of the Secretaries Committee on Administrative Development in April last year. After this directive, an inter-ministerial meeting was held in coordination with the Public Security Department. After the inter-ministerial opinion, the proposal to create the post was again sent to the secretary committee meeting on December 26, before the launch of the metro rail. But the proposal was sent back for further review.
