'Have been waiting for this for a long time'

There was delight on the face of Tasnuva Afroz as she stepped off the metro rail train and onto the platform of Motijheel station this morning.

The journey from Agargaon took just 15 minutes. Before today, the first day of operation on the Agargaon-Motijheel section, she had to wrestle the myriad challenges of Dhaka's streets to get to her workplace.

"It is unbelievable. I am happy that now I do not need to face the challenges and harassment on city buses to go to my workplace," said Tasnuva, a child developmental therapist at Mugda Medical College Hospital.

"It is a happy moment. I have been waiting for the service [operation of Agargaon-Motijheel section] for a long time," she told The Daily Star at Motijheel Metro Station.

"My family worries about my journey, especially during political unrest. I think metro rail is safe and it will ease their concerns," she added.

Tasnuva said she would take a rickshaw to go to the hospital.

She hoped that the government would extend the time of operation of the section so that she could return home as fast as she came. Trains are being operated for four hours daily, from 7:30am to 11:30am, on the route in the initial stage.

This correspondent visited the Secretariat and Motijheel stations for around 40 minutes and saw almost all trains were overcrowded. Many were standing but there was joy on their faces.

"You cannot imagine how much I am benefited by the metro rail service," Joya Kundu was talking to another passenger sitting beside her in a train heading towards Motijheel.

Her son is a first-year student of Notre Dame College and she takes him back home to Farmgate almost every day.

"I am going to the college by the metro rail but will have to return by bus until the authorities extend the service time. It will ease my life when the time will be extended," she said.

Travelling on metro rail not only saves time but also makes financial sense for Moinul Islam, an employee of a private firm in Motijheel and his wife Halima Khatun, a senior assistant secretary of the Law ministry

The couple has to spend Tk 280 daily for rickshaw and CNG run-auto rickshaw fare to get to their offices from Uttar Kafrul.

"But, today we are reaching our offices at the cost of just Tk 140, thanks to the metro rail service," Moinul told this correspondent at the Secretariat Metro Rail Station.

"We have to go to work everyday, regardless of the political situation, and metro rail is the safest means of transport now," he added.

Ashiquzzaman Khan, a banker, has to leave early from his Kazipara home to arrive at his office in Motijheel or risk getting stuck in traffic for about two hours.

"I just arrived in Motijheel in 20 minutes. I do not have words to express my joy, he said.