The first set of metro-train is likely to reach the country soon as a mother vessel carrying the coaches left Japan for Bangladesh on Thursday.

The ship carrying the set of train has left Kobe port of Japan and the coaches will be offloaded at Mongla Port in the country, Dhaka Metrorail officials said.

"A ship carrying the train set having six coaches departed Kobe port for Mongla sea port at about 6pm in Japan Standard Time (3pm Bangladesh Standard Time)," BSS said quoting Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) Managing Director MAN Siddique.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has also uploaded a picture of the train on its official website.

MAN Siddique said the train set will reach Uttara metro rail depot on April 23.

“We have carried out a third-party inspection of the train manufactured in Japan, as Japanese government imposed travel restriction during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Siddique said.

According to the project details, integrated tests of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6 will be carried out before formal operation and the trial runs will also be carried out after integrated test of the metro rail sets.

It said the length of the metro rail route up to Motijheel was 20.10 km. But now it has been extended to Kamlapur Railway Station by 1.16 km. As a result, the number of stations has also increased to 16.

There will be a total of 16 stations on the 21 kms route of the Mass Rapid Transit-MRT Line-6. The stations are: Uttara North, Uttara Center, Uttara South, Pallabi, Mirpur-11, Mirpur-10, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Agargaon, Bijoy Sarani, Framgate, Kawran Bazar, Shahbag, Dhaka University, Bangladesh Secretariat and Motijheel.