DHAKA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated construction work for the country's first metro rail service in capital Dhaka.
Through a video conference Sunday from a function in Dhaka's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the metro rail service which is expected to transport 60,000 passengers an hour.
In the first phase of the 2.5 billion U.S. dollars project, 11 kilometers would be completed by 2019 and 4.4 kilometers by 2020.
The remaining 4.7 kilometers was expected to be completed by 2022.
An official had earlier said the overhead construction of metro rail can help the Bangladeshi government's efforts to ease traffic gridlock in Dhaka which has only 436 km of 4-lane roads and 1,408 km of 2-lane roads.
Dhaka has been experiencing severe traffic jams, creating untold suffering for commuters. It is apprehended that traffic jam would be worsening in the future if steps are not taken immediately to ease the situation.
