Construction on Hanoi’s second metro line, the 12.5-kilometer Nhon–Hanoi route, is half complete. Work is underway on the 8.5-kilometer elevated section in the western district of Nam Tu Liem, and construction on the underground stations is now set to begin this June.
The deadline for finishing the first 8.5 kilometers, which runs above ground, is currently set for the end of next year. The four underground stations — Kim Ma, Cat Linh, Temple of Literature and Hanoi Central Train Station — are expected to be completed by the end of 2022. To make them, Vietnamese contractor FECON will bring in the tunnel-boring machines used to create Ho Chi Minh City’s first metro line, VnExpress reports.
Work began on the second line in 2010, with the route originally set to begin operating in 2017. The initial estimated cost was US$1.2 billion, but this has since risen to US$1.55 billion. It has been an arduous journey for the first metro line, too. In February 2017, it was announced that trial runs would begin in October of that year and that trains would be up and running by the first quarter of 2018. However, we all know how that turned out.
It was then hoped the line would open last month. China Railway Sixth Group Co., Ltd. has been conducting tests on the tracks since last September. Three to six months is the normal amount of time spent on trial runs. Some sections of the tracks, such as pathways and terminals, however, remain unfinished, and so opening the track has been further delayed.
[Photo via VietnamMoi]
