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Algeria's long-awaited metro system opens in Algiers | Algeria's long-awaited metro system opens in Algiers |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Thousands of people have used the underground metro in Algeria's capital, Algiers, after it finally opened 28 years after construction first began. | |
The BBC's Chloe Arnold says there was a festival atmosphere, as the opening coincided with a national holiday. | |
The 10-stop, 6.5km (four mile) line is only the second rail system of its kind in Africa, after the one in Cairo. | |
After work began in 1982, work was halted because of an economic crisis and a decade-long civil war. | |
The first passengers were able to use the metro a day after it was officially launched by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. | |
Our correspondent says security was tight when the metro opened, though many of the police officers were showing passengers how to use the ticket machines and escalators. | |
Algerians told the BBC they were proud of their new rail network, which connects Algiers' Central Post Office to the suburb of Kouba. | |
Hassan, who was riding the metro with a friend, said they had waited 30 years for this day, and gone through a lot of hardship while construction was going on. | |
Algeria went through 10 years of civil unrest as government forces fought an Islamist insurgency and as many as 250,000 people lost their lives. | |
"This is a great day for our nation," Hassan said. | |
Work on the project was first interrupted when a collapse in worldwide oil and gas prices sent Algeria's economy into free fall. | |
The country is the world's fourth-largest exporter of natural gas. | |
The metro cost an estimated 90bn dinars ($1.2bn; £750m) to build. | The metro cost an estimated 90bn dinars ($1.2bn; £750m) to build. |
A single journey will cost 50 dinars ($0.67; £0.47) - a price many Algerians have complained is too high. | A single journey will cost 50 dinars ($0.67; £0.47) - a price many Algerians have complained is too high. |