Metro train opens doors to Pallabi

Pallabi residents can finally enjoy the metro ride as the metro rail made its maiden stop at the Pallabi station at 8:34am on Wednesday before departing for Agargaon within 30 seconds of boarding passengers.

Mirpur's Sumaiya Akhter, one of the first to board the train, could barely contain her excitement. She knew she would be in her Karwan Bazar office in minutes instead of an hour-long commute.

"I am so happy the Pallabi station has opened! I can now reach the office on time – without any hassle," she said.

Another named MA Mridha Sohag came to visit the station as it opened. "I also wanted to collect my MRT pass but was told to come back in the afternoon."

The government has fixed Tk30 fare each for Pallabi-Uttara North and Pallabi-Agargaon.

The station opened commercial operations before 8am, when passengers entered through three gates, Station Controller Masud Rana Jewell told The Business Standard.

However, there were no long queues at Pallabi unlike the first few days of the opening of the metro rail.

A few passengers could not buy tickets from the vending machines as they either deposited higher denominations of bank notes or old notes.

Rover Scout Md Wahiduzzaman Sohag, working at the station to assist the passengers, said, "The vending machines have no change. We have told passengers to manually purchase their tickets from the counters."

Besides, one of the six ticket vending machines at the Pallabi station stopped working.

Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Company Limited Manager (Transportation) Iftekhar Hossain told The Business Standard, "The machines are new, but one of them malfunctioned as passengers used old banknotes. That issue has already been resolved."

The government started the operation of the metro rail service on 28 December last year on a limited scale, without a stoppage from Uttara North Station to Agargaon station.