<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday became the first passenger of the metro rail buying her own ticket, as she set another milestone in the country's communication history between a span of six-month of opening the dream Padma Bridge.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The first-ever metro train, carrying the prime minister and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana along with around 200 other selected passengers left from North Uttara to Agargaon at 01:53pm today.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Among the 200 riders were freedom fighters, the parliament speaker, ministers, government officials, diplomats, school students and ethnic minority people.</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh entered a new era today as the PM&nbsp; Hasina inaugurated the country's first-ever elevated electricity-run metro rail in the capital Dhaka this morning.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>She flagged off the service of the train at North Uttara station. There she also wrote on the green flags which were used to flag off the train.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier, the prime minister collected the ticket at about 01:35pm at the North Uttara station followed by her younger sister Rehana.</div><div><br></div><div>Later, both of them punched their ticket at the entry of the station and boarded&nbsp; the train.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>On arrival at the North Uttara Station, the PM planted a sapling there. Her sister Rehana was also present there.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>As part of the empowerment of women, Mariam Afiza became the first woman to drive the metro train.</div><div><br></div><div>Initially, the metro train will run from 8 am to 12 noon every day from Uttara to Agargaon stations without any stoppage.</div><div><br></div><div>State-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) will operate 30 double decker buses to transport passengers from and to metro rail stations.</div><div><br></div><div>Of those, 20 buses will be operated on Agargaon-Motijheel route via Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbagh and Gulistan while 10 buses will run from Uttara's House Building to Uttara's North station at Diabari via Abdullahpur.</div><div><br></div><div>Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), a government-owned company, is implementing the metro rail project.</div><div><br></div><div>Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been constructing the metro rail and providing soft loan for the project.</div><div><br></div><div>The construction work of the MRT Line-6 began in 2016. - UNB</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>