Hanoi to have metro in 2016

Hanoi (VNA) - Hanoi will have the first metro route linking its northwestern area to the downtown district in 2016.

The 11.54km route from Nam Thang Long residential area to Tran Hung Dao street
will include a 2.99km overhead section and 8.55km running underground with 10
stations.

Chief representative of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam
Tsuno Motonori said that the construction of the project will begin in mid 2011
and finish by the end of 2014. The route will be put into operation in January
2016 after the testing period.

The metro route costing nearly 14.7 billion JPY is one of the four biggest
projects in Vietnam using Japanese Government's official development
assistance (ODA) capital.

JICA said consultation service will be provide for the operation of the metro
route between 2016 until 2020 . The organisation will also consider the provision
of technical assistance to the project if necessary, he added.

Japanese technologies have been used in the building of urban railway systems in
Bangkok ( Thailand ) and New Delhi and Calcutta ( India ). "This time we
will apply this technique into building metro routes in Hanoi ," said the chief
representative.

He also expressed his hope that the metro route will help ease traffic congestion
in the capital city of Hanoi .-Enditem