The surreal first day of Dhaka's metro rail
As Bangladesh’s first-ever metro rail begins operation, what was the historic first day like?
It was a Thursday morning unlike any other for Sathi Akter, a mid-aged housewife from Uttara, as it was the morning Bangladesh's first metro rail opened its doors to the citizens. Sathi and her daughters, all dolled up, took the queue at Diabari Station and boarded the locomotive of their dreams after two hours' wait.
There were plenty of seats in the metro compartments, but Sathi and the daughters were too excited to have a seat. They were cheering, if not dancing.
As soon as the train set forth for Agargaon, it jerked forward, and the family barely saved themselves from hanging to the handles. But that seemed to brighten their moods even more.
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"We have been waiting for this day for a long time. This is the first time we are travelling on the metro rail. We are delighted," Sathi said as I interrupted her for a little conversation. "I have come here with my family; this feels like a dream."
All other passengers on board felt the same joy – after all, the metro rail of their 'dream' was finally up and running.
I was returning from my Agargaon to Diabari round trip. It took us roughly 12 minutes to reach Agargaon.
The Sathi family, when they got off the train, were even louder, as cameras and journalists surrounded them.
Yamada, a Japanese man, was smilingly recording the joyous procession on his phone. I realised from the dress and ID card that he works in the metro rail project. I asked him how he felt.
Yamada responded in broken English that he was very happy seeing the joyous reaction of the people. "It is beautiful… to see… how people are happy…" Yamada told me.
Since the inception of its journey in 2016 (construction), The metro rail project has been especially hard on the people in Mirpur and on the route it pierced through. The roads remained shrunk for years resulting in horrendous traffic jams in different parts of the capital. The agony of construction is not yet over.
All the agonies, however, made at least a little sense as we entered the train. The neon green seats, the scintillating lights, and the clean environment all around – colourful, to say the least, welcomed us to a 'different world'. It would make further sense as the train would pick up pace as it headed towards Uttara.
Your experiences in perpetual Dhaka traffic jams, its odours, cacophonies and filth would cease to exist, for the time being, as the neon lights cast their dreamy shadow on you.
Lipon and Rafid, two colleagues, were having fun in the speeding metro when I spotted them. "I think we are the first office-goers on this train today," Lipon told me. "We live in Agargaon and our office is in Mirpur DOHS. Unless we travel in office cars, we use our personal cars. Today is the first day of the metro rail, so we decided to go to the office on the train."
"We are elated. This is a different experience," they added, sharing their plan to often travel in the metro in the future.
On the way to Diabari, I met Satinder Kumar, an Indian official working at the metro rail project. "I look after the Agargaon to Motijheel part. But today, I am looking after this part," Satinder said. "It feels great to see people happy like this."
"When we first launched the metro rail in India, the crowd was even bigger and crazier than here. I would say people here are rather organised," Satinder added.
People are not less crazy here as well, though.
As mentioned earlier, the pain of construction was dearly felt in the Mirpur area; I met at least five people from Mirpur who either took leave from their office or closed their businesses to celebrate the first journey by Dhaka's metro rail.
"I have taken the day off from work to get on the metro rail," said Asaduzzaman, who resides in Mirpur 12. "This is a surreal day for us. I cannot believe the work is finally coming to an end."
Rahima Begum's entire family is Borka-clad from head to toe. I found her on my return to Agargaon station. She was waiting for return tickets to Diabari that a male family member was procuring at the ticket counter.
When asked about all the women accompanying her, she said, "This is my family. We live in Uttara. All of us, including our children, have come to celebrate the metro rail inaugural. It feels terrific to go out with family on this occasion".
It was not all smooth on the surreal first day of Dhaka's metro rail.
The massive line in both stations, Diabari and Agargaon, seemed to have never reduced as the ticket counter was slow, the vending machines were malfunctioning, the authority failed to issue long-term MRT cards, etc.
Prashant Kumar Sutrodhor came to get on the first train with his daughter at Diabari. "I was in the line first, but as I was waiting for tickets at the counter, something happened to their machine while people at the vending machine were procuring the tickets on their own. I procured it at the vending machine myself to get on the train at the last moment," Prashant said.
Mozammel Haque was buying his ticket at the Diabari station when I met him. "My office is in Dhanmondi. I will hail something [transport] from Agargaon," Mozzammel said. "I requested them a lot to deploy the lift. I am a senior citizen. My knees ache. They didn't listen. I had to take the stairs [at Diabari Station]. Also, they should launch buses to the station from different parts of Uttara."
Dilip D'Costa, another elderly man, standing nearby, assured him, "This is the first day. Don't worry; they will gradually sort out these issues."
Diabari Station Controller Jahangir Alam also tried to assuage the grievances in a similar tone. "This is the first day. We will fix this from tomorrow," Jahangir said when one of our colleagues raised the issue of why ticket officers were declining the request for long-term MRT cards.
It was around eleven in the morning when I was leaving Agargaon station. The line of the metro-bound crowd was still half a mile long.
Most of the remaining wouldn't have the luck to board on the first day as the metro train ceases to operate at 12.00 PM.
I was waiting for my bus, and the long queue of traffic only continued to stretch longer. After all, it is Thursday in Dhaka.
