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The largest public transit project in the province’s history is officially underway.

The $6.3-billion Réseau express métropolitain broke ground Thursday afternoon, at a ceremony held in the shadow of what will be the light-rail network’s Griffintown station near tracks currently used for commuter trains on the Mont-St-Hilaire line. The project will be managed and majority funded by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec — the province’s largest pension fund manager — though the provincial and federal governments will pay a little less than half of the final price tag.

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“We will start work almost immediately,” said CDPQ CEO Michael Sabia said at the ceremony held at the New City and Gas building. “There will be a project bureau with 800 people working downtown, and there will several hundred people working on the ground this spring, and in the end of June, there will be thousands of people working on the construction.”