Metro rail ushers in high hope for business boom

Staff Reporter :
The first ever electricity-powered metro rail service in Bangladesh will be inaugurated on 28 December. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be the first official ride from Agargaon to Uttara after inaugurating the Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 (MRT Line -6) at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. It may take around 20 minutes to reach Agargaon from Uttara .
After years of waiting and sufferings, the businessmen of the area are now expecting a business resound as metro rail gears for opening.
 The metro-rail project site was producing a large amount of dust and created a noise pollution. Heavy machinery, dump trucks, holes made the road narrow . As a result, moving along the road became tough which negatively impacted on the shops on both sides of the Mirpur Road.
Muhammad Amir, an owner of a restaurant beside the Rokeya Sarani said because of dust and obstacles to move along the road , they found less customers during the construction period . Thereby he closed his restaurant temporarily. Now things are changing and he reopened his restaurant and expecting more customers because of communication facility.
 Managing Director of a garment company Samiul Islam, is proud of the eight-storey factory that is being built on one Bigha of land in Diabari. He said that the metro rail service would make a friendly atmosphere communication which gears up economic activity in this area.
Hazi Sattar, owner of a shop at Mirpur Benaroshi Palli, said that he was facing humongous huddles during the entire period of metro rail construction. People generally avoided traveling the Mirpur area. Now he is expecting better
outcome because people from long distances can easily come to buy products in this area.
Meanwhile, after the inauguration of the first phase of metro-rail project on December 28, people will have to wait for another day to board the metro rail. According to the plan so far, tickets for metro rail will be available the next day after the inauguration of the service.
A total of 12 trains are ready for operation on 11.73-kilometre-long, Uttara-Agargaon section. Initially, 10 trains having six coaches each will run. The remaining two will be on standby to ensure an uninterrupted metro rail service in case of any problem or technical glitch.
It is informed, the rest of the parts of metro rail service will be launched up to Motijheel by December 2023 and Kamalapur by June 2025, a train from Uttara North Station will reach Agargaon Station within 20 minutes while it will take only 40 minutes to reach Kamalapur Station once the service goes on a full operation.