Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi’s firstmetro project, the Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway, will officially run inApril following many delays, according to Deputy Minister of Transport NguyenNgoc Dong.

The Hanoi People’s Committee and the ChinaRailway Sixth Group, which is the Engineering-Procurement and Construction(EPC) contractor of the project, said the official operation will begin aftertrial runs end sometime in late March, Dong said.

According to the official, there are no more“hindrances” to the project and only 4 percent of the work – includingconstruction of ramps and finishing touches on depot interiors – remainedunfinished.

Commercial runs will commence only after receiving safety nods from the VietnamRegister and an independent quality assurance agency from France, he said.

“The Chinese general contractor would make proper adjustments based on theresults of the trial runs before handing over the project to the Hanoiauthorities to manage and operate,” Dong said. “In the first phase, ticketsmight be waived for users of the metro.”

[Video: Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway starts trial run]

Vu Van Vien, Director of Hanoi’s municipal transport department, said the cityhas developed a plan to connect existing traffic infrastructure with theelevated railway by reorganising bus routes to improve convenience for publictransport users. In turn, this will help reduce reliance on individual vehiclesand lessen traffic pressure on Hanoi’s crowded streets.

Thirty bus routes will be revised to allow easier access to the metro’s 12depots.

Vien said the transport department has asked relevant units to add traffic andparking signs at the depots and craft plans to ensure the flow of traffic.

The city is also reviewing plans for ticket subsidies for certain groups ofpassengers – especially for people with disabilities – with ticket price andbus service fee reductions the first measures to be carried out.

In addition to the depot areas, the transport department will continue to seekviable parking zones and will ask district authorities to find suitable areaswithin their jurisdictions for metro passengers to park their motorbikes orbicycles.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong line runs 13.5km and uses standard-gauge rail track(1.435mm). The designed speed of the track reaches 80km/h and trains would runevery two minutes.

The 886 million USD project was originally slated to begin operation in 2016but multiple setbacks pushed the date back to the end of the first quarter of2019.-VNA