Bangladesh launches its first metro rail service. What took it so long?

Bangladesh launched its first metro rail service on Wednesday, December 28. The service was launched in the capital city of Dhaka in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Commuters began using the service from Thursday, December 29, and formed long queues and waited for long periods of time.

The metro project, worth 2.8 billion dollars, which was largely funded by Japan, spreads over 12 kilometres and covers 16 stations.

Hasina called the starting of the metro a new milestone and later released a 50 taka banknote to commemorate the opening of the metro. She added that there would also be train carriages reserved solely for women and said the Dhaka Metro would help reduce traffic jams in the city "significantly", something that all Bangladeshis are expecting.  

The entire project will be completed in 2030, and the government is hoping that the project will cover a hundred stations and six lines crisscrossing the city. 
Initially, the metro rail will run from 8 am to 12 noon every day from Uttara to Agargaon stations without any break. 

What does the data say? Dhaka is the largest city in Bangladesh, and its congested roads and traffic jams are a daily cause of misery for its 22 million citizens. 

• The Dawn reports that the capital's economy loses up to $3 billion per year in missed work time owing to traffic congestions, which are typically exacerbated by regular street protests and monsoon downpours.
• According to World Health Organization figures, about 3,000 people die in vehicle accidents in Bangladesh each year. In 2018, two students were killed by a speeding bus, attracting throngs of outraged teenage demonstrators to the streets.

According to experts, Dhaka's infrastructure has not kept pace with the city's population growth. According to them, the situation is compounded by the country's reliance on automobiles and, until recently, a lack of structured public transportation.

Why so much delay? On February 20, 2013, the government of Bangladesh signed a US$2.8 billion contract with the Japan International Cooperation Agency for the construction of the MRT Line-6.

• Its release was often postponed. The first phase of the rail project was supposed to be finished as early as 2013, however, it did not make the timetable. The train project was supposed to be finished in 2019, however, it was postponed twice between 2014 and 2018.
• The second phase was scheduled to be completed by December 2020 in 2018. The first phase of the MRT Line-6 was postponed until December 2021, finally, it was launched this week. 
• There are various reasons for this delay and Covid-19 was definitely one of them. In 2016, 6 Japanese rail engineers were killed in a  Dhaka cafe by Islamist extremists. Hasina used the inaugural ceremony to remember them.

Fun fact: On 24 October 1984, India got its first operational metro in Kolkata. After several struggles and bureaucratic hurdles, a stretch of only 3.4 km was opened with five stations on the line.