Shanghai’s Metro Line 11 will extend 5.76 km to Huaqiao Economic Development Zone together with three other stations in Kunshan.

The Kunshan government has set up Metro Communication Investment Co Ltd in a bid to finance the extension in order to quicken construction.

The station’s design, linking Shanghai's longest and fastest subway line and Kunshan, located 50 kilometers north of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, has been approved.

Buses from the station will connect to Jiading West Station on Shanghai's Metro Line 11 when it opens later this year.

Kunshan, a city of 1.6 million people near Shanghai's suburban Jiading and Qingpu districts, is a vigorous commercial and industrial city.

The city's water scenery has lured Shanghai residents into buying weekend residences there over the past couple years, and is home to many Taiwanese.

Still under construction, Shanghai's Metro Line 11 will stretch 126 kilometers across Pudong, Changning, Xuhui, Putuo and Jiading districts. The line's trains will operate at a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, well above the current 80 kilometers per hour on other lines.

The Line 11 project is split into northern and southern sections:

The first phase of the northern section, extending to Shanghai International Circuit, the city's Formula One racetrack in Jiading, will start service by the end of this year.

The second phase of the northern section will run 21 kilometers from Xuhui to Pudong and will open after the 2010 World Expo.

The 59-kilometer southern section will be mostly in Pudong, ending in coastal Lingang New City. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2012.

By Nancy