The Hanoi Party leadership has approved two more urban railway projects costing a combined VND106 trillion (US$4.5 billion) to expand its public transport network amid rising commuting demand, Thanh Nien reported.

Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro lines in Hanoi. Photo: Nam Tran

At an online meeting on April 22, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen The Hung said that metro line No.3 from the Hanoi railway station to Hoang Mai district will play a special role in completing the first phase of the urban railway network in the city’s downtown.

This route will extend the Nhon-Hanoi station metro line construction of which is underway and connect to urban railway No.2 at Hang Bai station, urban railway No.4 at Ring Road 2.5 and urban railway No.8 at Ring Road 3. The connection will create a cohesion of the urban railway network.

The total length of the main section is 8.78 kilometers, of which 8.13 km will run underground, with seven stations. The total investment is estimated at nearly US$1.753 billion, US$1.48 billion of which will come from ODA, Hung said. The project is set to kick start in 2022 and be completed by the end of 2028.

Meanwhile, metro line No.5 linking Van Cao, Ngoc Khanh, Lang and Hoa Lac has an estimated cost of 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). The project is expected to be completed by 2025.

When being put into commercial operation, metro line No.5 will connect metro line No.2 (which is under technical design), metro 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).

It will allow passengers to travel quickly and conveniently from the suburbs to the downtown and will 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.

According to the government’s report, Hanoi plans to build eight urban railway lines in the central city 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. Date for official run of the first metro line remains unknown.