Just like last year, at least 40 flying lanterns, which were lit during the New Year’s celebration on Monday night, got stuck in the electric wires in different parts of the metro rail service in Dhaka.

However, after last year's incident, the metro rail authorities were prepared this year.

The metro rail workers inspected different places of the stations from 3am to keep the train movement normal. 

Mohammad Iftikhar Hossain, general manager (operation) of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, said: "It was a new experience for us to remove flying lanterns from the metro rail’s electric wires last year. At that time, the metro rail movement was also disrupted. So this year we were prepared, and the staff went around different stations and lines and removed lanterns stuck in the wires of the metro rail.”

On Thursday, the authorities urged people not to use sky lanterns or similar objects on the metro rail route and its vicinity during New Year’s celebration.

On January 1, 2023, metro rail services were suspended for two hours after authorities removed sky lanterns that had fallen on electric wires.