Metro rail overwhelmed with passengers on first Eid day

Biplob Mia came from Shyamoli to the Agargaon station with his mother, father, two children and his wife. Though he lives right by the station, he never took the train ride before.

He felt Eid day would be a great occasion to have this new experience with his family. They were so delighted in anticipation that they did not mind the long queues much.

"I came to the station at 2:30pm and have been standing in front of the main gate for over an hour. I hope I can board the next train," he said.

Shipra Sarkar, a Rampura resident, said, "I came to the station to give my three-year-old son the amazing experience of riding the metro train.

"But, I could not enter the station after standing in line for 1.5 hours. Many passengers are waiting still. Even if we reached Uttara somehow, we would have to take a different vehicle to return home," she said.

Around 4pm today, the station witnessed crowds growing in number despite there being no technical issue with tickets or trains or such.

When asked, the station operator in charge said as the number of passengers exceeded the capacity, several people had to wait outside the gate.

"The metro rail has been running on Eid day from 2pm to 6pm with an interval of 20 minutes. There is no technical reason behind the gathering of people. Operations are running systematically here," said Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, general manager (operations), DMTCL.

"As it is Eid day, they're probably gathered here at the station meeting people or just roaming about. No other station is crowded up right now, though," he added.

From 20 April till the day after Eid, the trains will run from 8am to 2pm, MAN Siddique, managing director of DMTCL, told the media earlier.