Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was scheduled to inaugurate Bangladesh’s first-ever metro rail service up to Motijheel on October 20, said the road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on Sunday.

The prime minister would also join a citizens’ rally at 3:00pm at the Suhrawardy Udyan on the same day, he said at a press briefing held at the secretariat.

Currently, the metro rail, the mass rapid transit line 6, is running for 12 hours between 8:00am and 8:00pm taking passengers from all the nine stations on the Uttara–Agargaon route every day except Friday amid huge enthusiasm.

With the Sunday’s announcement, the elevated service on the 20.1-kilometre-long Uttara–Motijheel route will become commercially operational while the entire 21.26-km-long Uttara–Kamalapur route is scheduled to be inaugurated in June 2025.

The minister on Sunday also said that the prime minister would also inaugurate the construction work of the mass rapid transit line 5’s northern route (Hemayetpur-Bhatara) on September 16.

A citizens’ rally would be held at Hemayetpur in Savar at 11:00am on the day, he added.

The prime minister would also inaugurate the compensation distribution programme among 243 road crash victims and their families on October 22, Obaidul said.

On the same day she would open 140 bridges, 12 overpasses and one vehicle inspection centre, he added.