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One of World’s Most Crowded Cities Gets First Mass-Transit Rail

  • Project will bring a much-needed boost for Hasina’s government
  • Metro rail will ease traffic jams in extremely congested Dhaka
A track of the metro rail in Dhaka, in Dec. 2021.  

A track of the metro rail in Dhaka, in Dec. 2021.  

Photographer: Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto/Getty Images
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Bangladesh’s capital now has its first metro rail, a Japanese-funded project that aims to ease commuting in one of the most congested cities in the world. 

A section of the over 20-kilometer (12.427 miles) urban rail project, known as Line 6, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday. The line connects the northern zone of Dhaka to a hub of government offices and hospitals in the middle for now. Eventually it will cut through the city to the financial district of Motijheel in the south.