Bogotá eyes third metro line

Bogotá is advancing plans to build a third metro line to connect the city with Soacha, the most populated municipality in the department of Cundinamarca.

The Colombian capital’s mayor Carlos Fernando Galán; the manager of the Bogotá metro company, Leonidas Narváez; the city’s mobility secretary Claudia Díaz; Cundinamarca governor Jorge Emilio Rey; Soacha mayor Julián Sánchez Perico; and the director of the Bogotá-Cundinamarca metropolitan region, Luis Lota, signed an inter-administrative agreement on Wednesday to back the project.

Urban development agency IDU is analyzing prefeasibility studies for the route, which could pass through Bosa and then connect to the rail network from the south to the center. Another option is to begin in Soacha, connecting the southwest with the northwest of Bogotá and, therefore, with the other two metro lines, according to the BNamericas database.

During the signing of the agreement, Galán said Bogotá does not need just one or two metro lines but an entire network.

Previous mayor Claudia López had spoken of building up to five lines as the basis of Bogotá's mass transportation system.

Line No. 1 is currently under construction and should begin operating in 2028.

According to information from the Bogotá mayor's office, construction has progressed 35%.

Meanwhile, to build line No. 2, which will connect the Chapinero, Barrios Unidos, Engativá and Suba districts, offers are expected to be received in August.