Bangladesh opens first metro line to ease Dhaka’s traffic

The nation plans to increase the practice community to greater than 100 stations and 6 strains throughout the congested capital by 2030.

Bangladesh metro
The elevated practice community had been in improvement for almost a decade [File: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP]

Bangladesh has begun operating the primary metro rail service in its sprawling capital as authorities work to ease congestion that has throttled development and infected tempers within the gridlocked metropolis.

Dhaka is likely one of the world’s most densely populated cities, and each day commutes alongside its car-clogged roads are a supply of fixed frustration for its 22 million folks.

Native researchers say the capital’s economic system loses upwards of $3bn every year in misplaced work time attributable to visitors jams, typically worsened by common road protests and monsoon rains.

The elevated practice community had been in improvement for almost a decade and is slated to develop to greater than 100 stations and 6 strains criss-crossing the town by 2030.

Wednesday noticed the beginning of operations on a piece of the primary line connecting an upscale neighbourhood on Dhaka’s periphery with the town centre. It was constructed at a price of $2.8bn, largely funded by Japanese improvement funds.

Bangladesh metro
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina inaugurating the nation’s first metro rail service in Dhaka [Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office via AP]

The metro system is a “matter of delight for us”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina mentioned at a ceremony to mark the beginning of service.

“We promised to eradicate visitors jams from Dhaka,” she mentioned. “With the six metro rail strains, we will achieve this.”

The preliminary line is anticipated to hold 60,000 folks every hour when it's absolutely operational. Commuters have eagerly been awaiting its opening.

“We're relying on it. It can cut back public struggling,” mentioned Mostafizur Rahman, who spends almost three hours driving a bus to work every morning.

Hasina used the opening ceremony to honour six Japanese rail engineers who labored on the challenge and have been killed in an assault on a Dhaka cafe in 2016.

In June, Hasina inaugurated a 6.5-km (4-mile) bridge spanning the Padma River, which connects Dhaka with undeveloped southwestern Bangladesh. It was one in all greater than 100 bridges the prime minister has opened in current months.

The Padma Bridge was constructed by China at a price of $3.6bn, which was paid for totally by Bangladesh’s authorities.

The opposition typically accuses Hasina’s authorities of corruption in implementing large initiatives, nevertheless it denies the allegations.

Each Japan and China are main improvement companions of Bangladesh, which is striving to graduate from a least developed nation on a World Commerce Group checklist to a growing nation by 2026.

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