First train for Hanoi's Nhon metro line to arrive next March

The aluminum-alloy trains will be built to European standards. Each train will have four or five cars that are 80-100 meters long and up to 3 meters wide. Handles for standees will be designed to match Vietnamese people’s height.

The trains will cost almost VND3 trillion ($129 million), including fees for consulting, designing and assembling. Another VND4.7 trillion ($202 million) will be spent on rail tracks and train depots, taking the total cost to VND7.7 trillion ($331 million).

Nguyen Cao Minh, head of Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board (MRB), said Wednesday that they are urging the contractor to step up the speed of work to meet the deadline of operating the elevated section of the line next year.

The MRB had said earlier that the Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station section is 51 percent complete. Its elevated sections are 99.5 percent finished and work on these are being prioritized to meet next year’s deadline, while the underground section is only 5 percent complete.

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station route, the capital’s second metro line after Cat Linh-Ha Dong, runs 12.5 kilometers from Nhon area in the western district of Nam Tu Liem, via Kim Ma Street to Hanoi Railway Station in the downtown area. It will run 8.5 kilometers on elevated tracks through eight stations and the remaining four kilometers underground. The underground track is scheduled to begin operations in 2023.

Hanoi’s first metro line, connecting Cat Linh Station in downtown Dong Da District to the Yen Nghia Station in Ha Dong District, is said to be 99 percent complete, having missed its deadline several times.

The city earlier this month said it would borrow $1.48 billion from official development assistance (ODA) funds to build a new metro section in 2021.