Enthusiastic commuters of the capital city Dhaka expressed relief as they witnessed the test run of the metro rail on the Agargaon-Motijheel route on Friday, which is set to be made open for the public in October.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader inaugurated the test run of the metro rail from Agargaon to Motijheel at Agargaon at 4:35pm.
Giving hope to commuters, Quader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the country's first-ever metro rail service up to Motijheel in October this year and in the next year it will be operated all the way to Kamalapur.
Dhaka resident Abdul Halim said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's first-ever elevated electricity-powered metro rail service up to Agargaon from Diabari depot on December 28, 2022.
Sharif Ahhmed, an enthusiastic passenger who came to Agargaon from Shewrapara, said, "I was excited and happy to see the train running."
He said Dhaka residents experience severe traffic every day.
"The metro rail is an environment-friendly and sophisticated transport system . . . We are hoping that Dhaka residents will get rid of the curse of traffic soon," he added.
The metro rail currently operates for 12 hours every day, from 8:00am to 8:00pm on the Uttara-Agargaon section of the line.
The inauguration of the remaining section will enable commercial operations of the metro rail along the entire 20.10km line, connecting Uttara to Motijheel.
The metro rail is projected to carry 60,000 passengers per hour by travelling the entire route from Uttara to Motijheel-Kamalapur Railway Station in less than 40 minutes.
The 20.1-kilometre-long metro rail line lies through Uttara Phase-3 and the Bangladesh Bank in Motijheel via Uttara North, Uttara Center, Pallabi, Mirpur Circle-10, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Karwanbazar, Shahbagh, Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre, Doyel Chatwar and Jatiya Press Club.
The JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) provided around Tk 16,600 crore as project assistance out of the total cost of Tk 22,000 crore.
