A representative of the Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Board (MRB) on September 9 said that the second level of underground station S9 of Hanoi’s second metro line, Nhon-Hanoi Railway, has been completed, Kinh Te & Do Thi reported.

Nhon-Hanoi Railway has four underground stations: S9, S10, S11 and S12. The main level of Station S9 is under construction to connect up to the streets or down to the platforms via elevators.

Station S9’s main level is 19 meters below the ground. It is 23.3 meters wide, 186.6 meters long. Its construction is expected to be completed in about five months, and works on the whole station will be finished in late 2020.

The S9 station is the first underground metro project which has been carried out in the capital city and the second one in Vietnam (after the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line in Ho Chi Minh City).

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station route is 12.5 kilometers long from Nhon area in the western district of Nam Tu Liem, running along Kim Ma street to the Hanoi Railway Station in the downtown.

The total cost of the project has been revised up to EUR1.176 billion. Of the total, EUR178.7 million is funded with ODA provided by the French Development Agency (AFD) and EUR355.1 million is lent by the French government.

It is one of several metro lines planned for the capital city to ease traffic congestion and reduce emissions.

The followings are photos taken at underground station S9:

S9 is the first of four underground stations to be built on the line and located in the Kim Ma - Nguyen Chi Thanh junction.

Work on Station S9 has advanced the most among the four underground stations. The construction is often carried out at night, thus it makes no negative impact on traffic flow on the route or the urban landscape.

Currently, parts of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) are being transported from Italy to Vietnam by sea and are expected to land in Hai Phong port on October 31.

It is the second level of underground station S9 that the TBM will be assembled and start excavating.

The TBM is 6.6 meters high and wide, about 100 meters long, including auxiliary systems.

It is expected that by March 2021, the MRB will break ground to drill the first meter of tunnel. The TBM will drill about 10 meters a day and will go from station S9 to station S12 on Tran Hung Dao street.

Construction of this project kicked off on October 10, 2010. According to the MRB, the project’s 8.5km of the elevated tracks will be inaugurated in April 2021, then the remaining 4km of the underground stretch will be completed in December 2022 and the entire line is expected to become operational by that time.

    The TBM will be used to drill tunnels of Hanoi’s second metro line