Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao invited Russian investors to take part in Hanoi’s first subway project in talks with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on May 12.

Hanoi to have first metro route in 2014

Investment needed for Hanoi’s first subway soars

Thao asked for Russia’s assistance in designing a subway system for Hanoi, which is expected to begin operational in 2012.

Hanoi authorities in 2007 agreed to build a subway system in the city at the total cost of $2 billion. The project will be implemented in two phases.

The first phase will see the construction of a 12.5km route from the Hanoi Railways Station to Nhon, including 3.8km underground and 8.7km mono rails and five stations named Nhon – Cau Dien – Mai Dich – Cau Giay – Kim Ma – Cat Linh – Quoc Tu Giam – Hanoi Railways Station. The investment in this phase is estimated at $1.1 billion.

In the second phase, this route will be lengthened to Hanoi’s suburbs.

Once this project is completed, it will be able to serve around 19,000 passengers per hour.

Russia has one of the largest metro systems in the world. The first subway route was opened in Moscow in 1935. Moscow currently has 12 metro routes, totaling 172 stations, carrying around 3.2 billion passengers a year.

Thu Huong