A 50-METER underground passage and the shops alongside within the Xujiahui Station of Metro Line 1 will be closed till the end of 2009 due to the construction of another two intersecting Metro lines, the city's metro construction headquarter announced today.

Starting tomorrow, the passage connecting exits No. 11 and No. 12 of the station will be closed for the construction of Metro Line 9 and 11.

The path connects the Oriental Shopping Center, and Grand Gateway.

Passengers, who must use the channel between the two exits, will have to walk along Hongqiao Road.

"Eventually, we will build the station into a transfer hub for the three lines," Wu Xinyi, an official with the Shanghai Shentong Metro Group which is a key investor in the local subway system, said today.

The station will link Line 1 with Line 9 by 2010, and Line 11 sometime after 2010.

The first phase of Metro Line 11, a 45-kilometer subway linking rural Jiading District to downtown Jiangsu Road, will be operational in 2009.