Hangzhou Metro

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Hangzhou Metro (Chinese: 杭州地铁) is a metro system currently under construction to serve the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang and its suburbs. The construction commenced in March 2006 and its expected to complete by 2011. Hangzhou is the tenth city in the People's Republic of China to have a rapid transit system in place. The first line, Line 1 is a 48 kilometer line with 30 stations. There is a total of 8 lines with a length of 278 km planned in the future. Line 1 will cost 22.08 billion yuan. Line 1 links Xiaoshan Xiang Lake, crosses the Jiantang River and ends in Xiasha and Linpin districts which links the city area to the suburban area of the city. ^[1]

[edit] History

The planning for a metro system in the city started in the 1990s and was about to start construction works in September 2003, but the State Council suspended construction works due to increasing costs. The state council approved the planning of a rapid transit system on 6 June 2005. Hangzhou Subway Group Co. Ltd will build and operate the metro system in the eastern Chinese city. ^[2] The preliminary design for Line 1 was approved on 11 January 2007 by the Development and Reform Commission after four days of work by the experts. The 47.97 km line will have 41.36 km of underground lines, 6.14 km elevated, and 0.47 km at ground level. ^[3]

[edit] Construction

Construction of the first phase of Hangzhou Metro Line 1 will begin on 28 March 2007 and subsequent phases started in June, August and October of the same year. The first phase includes six stations namely, Jiubao East, Binjiang, Wenzhe Road, and three underground stations in Qinjiang New City. Jiubao East Station is the biggest station along Line 1 and will be a hub for the future metro system and other forms of public transport. ^[1] The funding of Line 1 will come from both the city government and the banks who will give 10.2 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan respectively. The first phase construction is estimated to be 45 billion yuan. ^[2]