Dhaka's Metro Carries 400,000 People a Day — and Is Still Growing

MRT Line 6 now moves an estimated 400,000 passengers daily. With Line 1 and Line 5 under construction and extensions to Kamalapur planned, Dhaka's metro network is expanding.

A train arrives at Agargaon station on MRT Line 6, which now carries around 400,000 passengers a day. Photo: Wasiul Bahar, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 6-minute read

Dhaka has spent decades as shorthand for traffic congestion. Since 29 December 2022, when the first section of MRT Line 6 opened to commercial service, it has also been a city with a working metro — one now carrying an estimated 400,000 passengers every day.

What Is Running Now

Line 6 opened in two stages, the first section in December 2022 and the second on 5 November 2023, connecting the northern suburbs toward the city centre. For commuters on that corridor the change was not incremental. Journeys that consumed one to two hours in traffic compressed into predictable rides measured in minutes — and predictability, more than raw speed, is what a metro actually sells.

What Is Being Built

The network under construction is considerably larger than what is open:

Line 6 southern extension — running further south to Kamalapur Railway Station, the country's principal rail hub, creating a direct interchange between the metro and the national railway.
Line 6 further extensions — planned northward toward Tongi and westward toward Savar, both major commuter and industrial catchments.
MRT Line 1 — connecting the airport to Kamalapur and Purbachal. Construction began in February 2023, with opening scheduled for December 2030.
MRT Line 5 — running from Hemayetpur to Bhatara, currently in progress.

The third phase of Line 6 is designed to interchange with Lines 1, 2 and 4 — the point at which a set of separate lines starts behaving like an actual network rather than a collection of corridors.

The Honest Part: It Is Slow

Reporting by The Daily Star has examined whether Dhaka's metro is a mass transit solution or a missed opportunity, and the critique deserves to be stated rather than skipped. Project implementation has been slow, with delays in securing approvals — particularly for components dependent on foreign loans, where domestic decision-making and lender timelines have to align before anything moves.

A line opening in December 2030 was begun in February 2023. Nearly eight years from groundbreaking to service is a long time in a city adding residents continuously, and there is a real question whether the network will expand faster than the demand it is meant to absorb.

Why It Still Counts as a Milestone

Two things are true at once. The rollout is slower than Dhaka needs, and Dhaka now has urban rail transit that did not exist four years ago.

Building a metro through one of the most densely populated cities on earth — with utilities to divert, land to acquire, and traffic to keep moving throughout — is among the hardest categories of infrastructure delivery. Many cities of comparable size and income have announced metro systems and not opened them. Bangladesh announced one, opened it, and is building four more lines.

The Wider Infrastructure Picture

The metro belongs to the same national build-out as the country's power, connectivity and digital service programmes covered elsewhere on this site. A functioning capital-city transit network is not a luxury project layered on top of development; it is what allows a metropolitan labour market to function at all — determining whether a worker in Savar can realistically take a job in central Dhaka.

At 400,000 daily journeys and rising, that calculation is already changing for a substantial number of people.

Sources

"Dhaka's metro rail: Mass transit solution or missed opportunity?," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
"Dhaka Metro Mass Rapid Transit System, Bangladesh," Railway Technology — railway-technology.com
"The Future of Dhaka's Metro Rail Network: Exploring Upcoming Lines," The Daily Star — thedailystar.net
"MRT Line 6" and "MRT Line 1 (Dhaka Metro Rail)," Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org

dhaka traffic congestion (1)