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For congestion-vexed commuters, it's a dream come true as cross-Dhaka overhead metro rail began Sunday its commercial operation on the entire Uttara-Motijheel corridor, with cheering passengers aboard trains.
Family, friends and colleagues looked enthusiastic to savor the first-day ride on the metro train along the mass rapid transit line 6 (MRT 6), leapfrogging perennial tailbacks on the city streets.
The commuters -- be on short-or long distance -- thronged their nearby stations to experience the veritable joy ride to and from Motijheel on the fastest journey for them, by electric train.
Richard, a businessman, got onto the train from Farmgate station along with his family and friends after buying single-journey tickets for Tk 30 each to come to Motijheel and travelled back on the same route with another single-journey ticket. It took only 12 minutes.
"I used to spend Tk 250 to 400 on CNG or Ubar ride for a single journey to come to Motijheel from my residence at Monipuripara. Now I can come to Motijheel comfortably for my business purpose on MRT," says Richard in expressing his ecstasy.
Jenny, his wife, also appeared elated and said MRT can be family pleasure trip after office hours as well as can be best mode to come to shopping centre in Baitul Mukarram.
A group of employees who work in the medical shops near Secretariat station were also found returning from Motijheel buying single-journey tickets for two trips at Tk 20 each. Distance between Secretariat and Motijheel may be charged by rickshaw-pullers Tk 30 and bus operators Tk 10.
"As the station is so close to our shops, we planned to take the two-way ride on the first day," said one of them.
The FE writer also found office-goers from different locations between Uttara and Farmgate enjoy the morning journey to come to Motijheel end as Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) launched the partial operation of total 20-kilometre stretch of the MRT at 7:30 am for four hours.
As the Agargaon-to-Motijheel operation ended at 11:30 am, many enthusiastic commuters, however, could not go back to their destinations on MRT as no trains from both ends ran after 11:10 am.
The entire route took 31 minutes to complete the journey touching a total of 12 stations.
DMTCL launched the part of the 20.1-km MRT 6 from Uttara to Agargaon on December 29 after inauguration by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She also inaugurated the second part from Agargaon to Motijheel on Saturday, enabling the city-dwellers to ride the fastest train for four hours.
Though bus operation on the same corridor was almost thin on Sunday due to BNP- declared blockade, crowds at the stations in the most populous part were high.
DMTCL staff members along with staff of the Japanese consultancy firms were also found at stations and on different trains oversee the first-day operation.
Yoshizawa Toshiyuki, manager of Nippon Signal, who is engaged in automated fare collection, said no such complaint was received on the first day. "After passengers getting habituated with the new system, there would not be any problem in the future."
Since the launch of the commercial operation on 11.73-km stretch of MRT 6 from Uttara North to Agargaon on December 29, DMTCL has got on average 90,000 passengers daily against its capacity of 60,000 per hour to cross entire 20- km corridor per hour from one side at 100km speed.
smunima@yahoo.com