Moscow's sprawling metro system sprouted a new appendage on Friday with the inauguration of the Delovoi Center station under the Moscow City business district, the metro's press service said.
Delovoi Center provides a link between Vystavochnaya station on the Light Blue Line and Park Pobedy on the Dark Blue Line.
The journey time between Delovoi Center and Park Pobedy is about three minutes and trains will run at 10-minute intervals.
Deputy Mayor Marat Khusnullin lauded the station's builders for managing to complete the work in just over two years, despite the size of the station itself and the 90-meter depth at which it was constructed. The standard time needed to build a station from scratch is five years, he said.
Delovoi Center will eventually be integrated into the Yellow Line, which currently runs from Tretyakovskaya in the city center to Novokosino in the eastern suburbs of Moscow.
The Yellow Line will also extend southwest from Delovoi Center to the planned Novoperedelkino station via Park Pobedy.
Moscow authorities plan to build a total of 79 new stations and 160 kilometers of track between 2013 and 2020.