Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has decided to establish a State council to assess the pre-feasibility study report of Hanoi’s urban railway line No.5 that will link Van Cao, Ngoc Khanh, Lang streets and Hoa Lac highway.

Accordingly, the council will be headed by the minister of Planning and Investment, with a deputy minister of Planning and Investment being the vice chairman.

Hanoi’s urban railway line No.5. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

The council’s chairman will report to the Prime Minister on hiring a foreign consultant or a joint venture of domestic and foreign consultants to verify Hanoi’s urban railway line No.5 in accordance with regulations.

According to the Hanoi People's Committee, if the investment policy is approved, work on Hanoi’s urban railway line No.5 will start in 2022 and the line is expected to become operational in 2026.

Investment on the metro line No.5 is estimated to amount to US$2.758 billion. The total length of the route is 38.43 km (6.5 km underground, 2km overhead and 29.93 km on the ground).

Its alignment will parallel Thang Long avenue, running on the median strip of the road.

When being put into service, line No.5 will join a network with line No.2 (which is under technical design), line No.3 (which is under construction), metro lines No.4 and 6 (which are being studied), and metro lines No.7 and 8 (which are under planning).

The line will facilitate commuting from Hanoi's suburbs to downtown, help reduce urban traffic density, improve transport structure and people's travel conditions.

The Hanoi city government is also considering building a number of monorail lines to better exploit the entire urban railway system in the capital city, create a cohesion of the capital city's urban railway network.

According to the government’s report, Hanoi plans to build eight urban railway lines in the metropolitan area with a combined length of 305 km, including three monorail segments, in its development plan for 2030 with a vision towards 2050.

Work on Hanoi’s first metro line, the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway line, commenced in October 2011 and was originally scheduled for completion in 2013. But several hurdles, including loan disbursement issues with China that were only resolved in December 2017, stalled it for years. It is scheduled to start operation early next year, according to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.