DHAKA: The residents of Dhaka are hoping 2023 heralds an end to the city’s notorious traffic congestion after the Bangladeshi capital this week opened its first metro line. A 2021 study by Khulna University put the annual cost of traffic jams in the city of 20 million people at $4.2 billion, adding that commuters spent an average of two hours a day traveling 5-10 km. The new metro service is operated by the state-owned Dhaka Mass Transit Co. Ltd. and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday. Developed with funding from Japan, construction began in 2017. An initial 12-km section of the planned 20-km Line 6 connects Dhaka’s northern suburb of Uttara to Agargaon in the city center. “We have initiated this mass rapid transit project aiming to address two major areas: reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution,” M.A.N. Siddique, DMTCL’s managing director, told Arab News on Saturday. “This is hugely timesaving for the passengers.”While there are currently no stops between Uttara and Agargaon, new stations are scheduled to open in March, and by the end of the year the service is set to be expanded to Motijheel, Dhaka’s business and commercial hub. “Currently, it takes around three hours to travel from Urtara to Motijheel, which will be reduced to 38 minutes when this metro rail service is fully operational,” Siddique said. “Every day it will carry 500,000 people, which will automatically reduce the number of small vehicles and private cars on the streets.” Uttara resident Abdur Rahman said he was delighted to have a metro service in his city. “I have experienced metro rail services abroad but now I am enjoying this service in my country. I used to spend two hours traveling to my office in Mohammadpur area. Now it takes only 50 minutes. This service brought a huge benefit to me,” he said. “I think in the new year, people will enjoy the benefits more and more and it’s expected that the traffic congestion in the city will be reduced.”The new metro is also expected to make traveling in Dhaka safer, especially for women, many of whom fear being sexual harassed on the city’s roads. A 2022 UN-backed survey by the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh showed that 87 of women in the country had experienced harassment at least once, 36 percent regularly faced sexual harassment on public transport and 57 percent considered public transport as the most unsafe public space. Company executive Rashida Begum told Arab News that commuting on public transport in the city was “everyday suffering” for her and other working women. “Women encounter much harassment while trying to board a passenger bus. Almost every day, because of this I’m late to the office,” she said. Begum said she had found the new metro service to be “very safe and comfortable.” “There are many entry and exit points which made travel hassle-free. I hope the metro rail services will bring a sigh of relief for many working women in the city,” she said.Prof. Shamsul Hoque from the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology praised the new service but said there was still work to be done to ensure it was fully integrated within the city. “Metro rail is definitely a good mass transport medium. But to maximize (its) benefits we need to take an integrated approach,” he said. “Some policy support is needed to be considered here.” If the development of the metro network was not accompanied by the necessary infrastructure, it may make the congestion even worse as traffic jams would build up around the stations, he added. “At every station, there should be more systematic feeder, ride-sharing services, so that there will be no bottleneck situations on the streets,” Hoque said. “Otherwise, this project may turn into a counterproductive one.