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Extending the métro’s Orange Line to Laval would cost $4.3 billion, according to a preliminary estimate done by the region’s transportation planning body obtained by the Montreal Gazette.

The report, prepared by the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, envisions extending the city’s busiest line by 6.4 kilometres and five stations north and east of the current Côte-Vertu terminus in St-Laurent. It’s the first time the much-discussed extension has been costed out. The $4.3-billion price tag would put the project in line with the estimated $4.5-billion extension of the Blue Line by 5.8 kilometres to Anjou, which is expected to break ground in the winter of 2021 and be completed by 2026.

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“I’d like to see a speedy acceptance by the government of this project,” said St-Laurent mayor Alan DeSousa, who read the report.

The ARTM approved the report in its June 18 meeting and submitted it to the transport minister. It is a first step before the project can be added to the government’s 10-year-infrastructure fund. Included in the overall price tag is the roughly $45 million needed to prepare a dossier d’opportunité, a kind of pre-feasibility study that would take about three years to put together. The project would then become the subject of a feasibility study and an environmental assessment report.