Bangladesh, which has drawn global attention for its economic and social performance, is now set to get its first metro rail soon. Work for the metro rail project is expected to begin in March 2022. Work for the same, which was initially slated to begin in December 2020, had to be rescheduled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The project — Mass Rapid Transit system, which is being built along 21 km in the heart of the capital,.is now expected to finish by December 2026.

“Construction work on the country’s first underground metro rail is expected to begin in March 2022, more than a year after it was scheduled for inauguration,” Dhaka Tribune in a report said.

At a press conference, MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL), said a tender for the construction work for the metro rail project has been floated on June 10. Siddiqui is also hopeful that the delay will be managed by multitasking.

The construction of the metro line will add another feather to Dhaka’s economic and social indicator. The project will also help which decongesting the capital.

Presenting the country’s 50th budget, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal earlier said that the socio-economic achievements of the South Asian nation, once considered one of the poorest in the region has been a “test case.”

For the last 10 years, the country’s economy has been growing at over 6 per cent. In 2019, it even touched 8.1 per cent.

By 2026, Bangladesh will move out of the United Nation's Least Developed Countries (LDC) list.