Excitement as metro rail now calling all stations
School teacher Snigdha Dutta and her eight-year-old son Ankit Dutta excitedly boarded the metro rail at Shewrapara station for their trip to her parents' house in Uttara.
Anyone who commutes from these parts of Dhaka to Uttara, which is situated north of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, knows just how difficult and exhausting the commute can be. But the metro rail is slowly changing accessibility to different parts of Dhaka as more and more stations open up.
For Snigdha, metro rail has drastically changed how she commutes to her parents' house.
"Before the Shewrapara metro station had opened, I used to board the metro rail from Agargaon station which is quite the commute from my own house to my parents' house".
"I no longer need to budget for additional travel expenses and allocate more time to reach Agargaon. I can now conveniently board the metro from a station just adjacent to my house," said an overjoyed Snigdha.
Two new metro rail stations -- Uttara South and Shewrapara -- opened to the public this Friday. All nine stations of the Uttara-Agargaon route are now operational, around four months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's first metro rail.
Another commuter, Himadri Shekhar and his seven-year-old son Satyaki Rik came to Shewrapara to go to Uttara North.
Many commuters said this means ease of accessibility on this route for them.
"I had told my father to take me to this station when it would open. This is my second trip on the metro rail. Last time, I travelled with my father, but we had to board the metro from Agargaon station. I am super happy as this station is close to my house," said the beaming child.
Commuters who boarded the metro from Uttara South were similarly excited.
Ashraful Islam boarded the metro rail from Uttara South to take his mother to his brother's house in Agargaon.
"We had to board the metro rail from Uttara Centre station before the Uttara South station opened, which meant we had to commute some distance to access the closest metro station. As our house is close to Uttara South station, our time and money, both will be saved," said Ashraful.
Yunus Hasan, a resident of Mohammadpur, expressed his joy at all stations from Uttara to Agargaon being open to public. "Now we can get off at any of the stations which will give us some respite from the traffic," Yunus added that he is eagerly waiting for the complete metro rail service from Uttara to Motijheel.
The two newest stations were opened to commuters at 8:30am, Mahfuzur Rahman, manager of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), told The Daily Star.
MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, yesterday said the performance test on the viaduct from Agargaon to Motijheel will start in July and they were hopeful about meeting their target to start operation of this section of the MRT Line 6 within December this year.
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