The US Embassy in Dhaka has congratulated Bangladesh for inaugurating the country's first-ever Metro Rail in Dhaka.  "We want to give a special shoutout to the six female metro train operators, including Maryam Afiza," said the Embassy sharing photos of Metro Rail and Afiza from its verified Facebook page on Wednesday. Read more: Metro rail is pride of Bangladesh: PM Hasina The country’s commuting system entered a new era Today (Wednesday) as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first ever metro rail service in the capital. She inaugurated the operation of the first phase of the project-- Uttara to Agargaon--at 11:00 am from Uttara sector-15 playground. Read more: Mariam Afiza to operate metro rail on first day As the government is starting the operation on a limited scale, it will take 20 minutes to travel the 11.73-Km distance from Uttara to Agargaon, but soon it will come down to 16-17 minutes. Bangladesh is the third country in South Asian region to have metro rail after India and Pakistan. India introduced its first 3.4km underground metro rail in Kolkata in 1984 while Pakistan launched its mostly-elevated metro line in Lahore in October, 2020.