Agargaon-Motijheel: Shortened travel time elates metro commuters

Tasnuva Afroz was evidently delighted while stepping off the metro train and onto the Motijheel station's platform yesterday morning, when the Agargaon-Motijheel section of MRT Line-6 opened to the public.

It took her just 15 minutes to reach the place from Agargaon.

Before yesterday, she had to face many a challenge, including intense traffic jam, on the city streets to reach her office.

"It's unbelievable. I'm happy that I don't need to face the challenges and harassment on the city buses or the streets to reach my workplace," Tasnuva, a child development therapist at Mugda Medical College Hospital, told The Daily Star at the station. 

"I've been waiting for this [the opening of the section] for a long time … My family used to worry about my commute, especially during political unrest. I believe the metro rail is a safe mode of transport and will ease their concerns."

She now hopes the government would extend the section's operation hours so that she can return home as fast as she reaches her workplace.

Currently, trains on the route are being operated for four hours daily – 7:30am to 11:30am.

After the opening of the Uttara-Agargaon section in December last year, a train now takes 17 minutes to complete a commute on the route

From Agargaon, it now takes 14 minutes to reach Motijheel.

With three stations operating at the moment, the commute from Uttara to Motijheel now takes 31 minutes.

This correspondent visited the Secretariat and Motijheel stations and saw almost all the trains were overcrowded. Though many had to stand, they were not complaining.

Joya Kundu was overheard talking to another passenger while heading towards Motijheel – "You can't imagine how much the metro rail service is benefitting me."

Every day, she picks up her son, a first-year student, from Notre Dame college and takes him back home in Farmgate.

Speaking to this correspondent, she said, "I'm going to the college to pick him using the train, but we'll have to return by bus. It'll get easier when the operation times of the route will be extended."

For Moinul Islam, who works in Motijheel, and his wife Halima Khatun, a senior assistant secretary at the law ministry, the metro rail not only save time but also money.

Before the section opened yesterday, they would have to spend Tk 280 each every day for rickshaw or CNG-run auto-rickshaw fares to get to their offices from home in North Kafrul.

"Today [yesterday], we reached our offices at the cost of just Tk 140, thanks to the metro rail," Moinul told this correspondent at the Secretariat station.

Ashiquzzaman Khan, who is usually stuck in traffic for about two hours when he goes to his office in Motijheel from his Kazipara home, said, "I arrived in just 20 minutes! I can't even express how happy I am."