KAZAN, August 6 (Itar-Tass) —— A second metro line will be built in the capital city of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan within preparations for the Football World Cup in 2018, Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin said on Saturday.
In 2018, Kazan will host play-off games and, probably, quarterfinals. For these ends, a stadium seating 45,000 is being built on the bank of the River Kazanka, a Volga tributary. The stadium will be shaped as a water lily.
The construction of the stadium began under the program for the preparation for the Summer Student Games, or Universiade-2013. According to the mayor, the stadium will be commissioned in 2012. It will host the Student Games’ opening and closing ceremonies.
“The second metro line will start from the operating station Sukonnaya Sloboda and run up to the would-be football stadium,” Metshin said. The new line will have two stations on both banks of the River Kazanka and will cross the river under its bottom.
First five stations of Kazan’s metro, the youngest one in Russia, were commissioned in 2005, the year of Kazan’s 1,000th anniversary. Now it has seven stations and handles up to 100,000 passengers a month.
Another three stations are planned to be opened by the Universiade in 2013, and still two more – by the World Cup in 2018.
According to long-term plans, Kazan’s metro will have three lines with a total length of 45 kilometers.