From Uttara to Motijheel: Travelling in 33 mins 'feels like a dream'

A dream of the residents of the capital has been realised finally by travelling 20.1km of the road from Uttara to Motijheel in only 33 minutes through metro rail.

With this, the government's efforts since 2011 to introduce the first metro rail in Dhaka have also been fulfilled.

The first commercial metro rail towards Motijheel left Uttara North station at 7:30am Saturday following the inauguration of the Agargaon-Motijheel portion of the track under the MRT Line-6 project.

The train reached Motijheel at 8:03am, taking only 33 minutes, a distance that would have taken hours on the road.

The trains that operated on the first day of the journey were overcrowded as many people travelled to gather new experience.

A large number of office-bound people utilised the opportunity of Metro Rail due to the blockade called by the BNP and Jamaat.

The passengers of the first metro train expressed excitement over their experience of less time commuting.

A crowded metro rail on its way to Motijheel on Sunday, 5 November 2023. Photo: Courtesy

Sanowar Hossain, an office-goer, was expressing his joy after riding the metro rail for the first time.

"I hopped onto the metro rail from Uttara at 7:30am and got off at Motijheel at 8:05am. I have met a lot of people in the metro and all of them had a smile of satisfaction," he said.

Faisal Al Mahmud Milon, another passenger who boarded from Pallabi, said it used to take him two to three hours to reach Motijheel.

Today it took a little more than 20 minutes.

"The metro was very crowded, but everyone was very happy as we did not have a faster medium of commute like this before," he said.

His only regret right now is that he cannot return using the metro in the afternoon as the services are currently only available from 8:30am to 11:30am in the Agargaon-Motijheel route.

"Metro has already won a place in our hearts," Faisal said, teeming with excitement.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Agargaon-Motijheel portion of the metro rail on Saturday. The route was open to the public yesterday.

The first metro left Uttara at 7:30am and reached Motijheel at 8:03am, taking only 33 minutes to cross 21km, a distance that would have taken hours on the road.

File photo of metro rail during its trial run/Mumit M

Visiting Agargaon to Motijheel, it was seen that the Motijheel-bound train was more crowded, with most of the passengers being office-goers.

Meanwhile, people who have their offices in Mirpur also took the full benefit of the metro rail service as they were able to hop onto the metro from Motijheel in the morning.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Uttara Agargaon section of the metro rail last December. On average, approximately one lakh people travelled on the metro rail each day. The DMTCL has a plan to provide service for around six lakh people each day.

Metro Rail authorities operate a train from Agargaon to Motijheel as part of the system-integrated test run. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate this section today. The photo was taken from the Dhaka University area recently. Photo: Rajib Dhar

For now, trains will ply between Agargaon and Motijheel every 10 minutes from 7:30am to 11 am, while the Uttara-Agargaon route will remain open from 7:30am to 8:30pm, MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, said after the inauguration.

The government initiated the MRT line-6 project in 2011 to develop a metro rail from Uttara North to Motijheel with an estimated cost of TK22,000 crore. The Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited increased the cost of the project to TK33,472 crore with a provision of extending the line up to Kamlapur.