Bangladesh on Wednesday opened its first metro line in the capital Dhaka, which is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. The new elevated train network has been in development for nearly 10 years and it is slated to grow to over a hundred stations six lines crisscrossing the city by 2030.
The metro project has been mostly funded by Japan. Inaugurating the service on Wednesday, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said “We have added another feather of pride to the crown of Bangladesh’s people today. Another feather added to the crown of the development of Bangladesh,” the Associated Press reported.
Ambassador Kiminori Iwama, the newly appointed Japanese ambassador and Ichiguchi Tomohide, the chief representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), were also present during Wednesday’s inauguration.
Prime Minister Hasina used the opening ceremony to commemorate six Japanese rail engineers working on the project who were killed during an attack on a Dhaka cafe by Islamic extremists in 2016.
Hasina said the government had promised to eradicate traffic jams from Dhaka and with the six metro lines, the government would be able to do so.
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On Wednesday, operations began on a section of the metro line connecting a neighbourhood on Dhaka’s periphery with the city centre. Once fully operational, the line is expected to carry 60,000 people each hour.
At present, daily commutes along Dhaka’s car-clogged roads is frustrating for residents and the metro service will hopefully bring relief.
“We are counting on it. It will reduce public suffering,” Mostafizur Rahman who spends nearly three hours riding a bus to work every morning, told news agency AFP on Wednesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
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