BRAZIL: Construction of Rio de Janeiro metro Line 3 is set to begin by the end of the year for opening in 2014, the Brazilian Ministry of Works has announced.
An existing 23 km suburban rail alignment between Niterói, São Gonçalo and Itaboraí will be converted to metro standards, and a tunnel built under Guanabara Bay to connect Niterói to Carioca station on metro Line 1. This will take the new line to 37 km and 16 stations.
Energy company Petrobas is contributing R$400m to the R$1·2bn cost of the project which will improve transport to its petrochemical complex in Itaboraí; the current journey time from Niterói to Itaboraí of 1 h 25 min should be reduced to 20 min, with annual traffic estimated to reach 1·7 million passengers.
