INITIAL plans for Shenzhen’s Metro Line 2 have been given State approval with work due to begin soon ahead of its completion by October 2010, Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday.
Metro Line 2 Phase I will link Shekou passenger port to Window of the World. Construction of the line’s Metro stations began last month.
Metro Line 2 Phase I, which will cost a total of 6.485 billion yuan (US$857 million), will have 11 stations along its 13.4-kilometer length, the reports said.
The line will pass Sea World in Shekou, Nanshan Commercial Center and Science Park before reaching the Window of the World theme park.
Line 2 passengers will be able to transfer to Line 1 at Window of the World, and to Line 5, which will run from Shekou to Yantian, at Shekou passenger port.
Metro Line 1, which runs from Luohu to Window of the World, was put in service at the end of 2004, while work on Line 3, which will stretch from Hongling Road Central to Longxing Street in Longgang, has just begun.
Shenzhen plans to have 422.4 kilometers of Metro lines by 2020, nearly five times the current length of the Hong Kong MTR.
The city government has promised to build 177 kilometers of subway by June 30, 2011, in time for the 26th Universiade.
The government is now making preparations for Line 5 and the extension of Line 4. Line 5 could stop at 29 stations as it meanders from Nanshan through parts of Bao’an and Longgang before ending at Shenzhen Grand Theater in Luohu, according to a feasibility study report.
Line 4 which already links Huanggang with Children’s Palace in Central Futian will be extended from Children’s Palace north to downtown Longhua, Bao’an District. (SD News)