Published: Just now
The city of twenty million, Dhaka, is now opening the first part of its subway, built largely with Japanese funding. When completed in eight years, it will include over a hundred stations along six lines. According to the design, this first line will already carry 60,000 travelers per hour when it is fully operational.
The Bangladeshi capital is among the world’s most densely populated and suffers badly from traffic congestion. The University of Technology has calculated that business in the giant city loses the equivalent of SEK 30 billion a year in lost working time caused by traffic jams.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the subway on Wednesday in the company of Japanese dignitaries, calling the subway “another feather in the people’s proud crown.” She has also inaugurated over a hundred bridges in recent months, many built with the help of China or Japan.