Bogotá’s long-awaited rapid-transit railway project took one step closer to becoming a reality on Wednesday after talks between representatives of the Mayor of Bogotá and the World Bank.

Transport Secretary for Bogotá Ana Luis Flechas said in an interview with Caracol Radio that detailed engineering plans for the metro system could begin in early 2013 provided guarantees are made to the World Bank which is helping to fund the project.

The World Bank said at this stage it has “no objections” to the project and will release 30 million pesos  to help fund the 80 million peso cost of the advanced engineering planning once it has received assurances from the District Capital. These include strengthening and harmonising the proposed work and schedule of the project’s experts and the submission of duly audited supporting documents on the project.

If delivered to schedule, construction will begin in 2015 and the metro will open in 2018. The overall cost of the project is expected to come in at an eye-watering US$1.92 billion, with the national government providing 70% of the funding.

A metro system for Bogotá has been the subject of debate for many decades. The current proposal – which will be Colombia’s second after Medellín –  would run both over and underground for 29km in total and will link the Portal de Las Americas in the city’s south-west with the historic centre through to the commercial district in the north.

It will seek to alleviate the chronic congestion problems that Bogota’s seven million inhabitants endure by complementing the current system, which consists of independent, privately owned buses and the overcrowded Transmilenio busway.

Progress on the project in its current form has been sluggish since former Mayor of Bogotá Samuel Moreno was elected in 2007 promising to build an underground rapid transit system. It was originally hoped that construction on the project would begin before the end of 2012, but last year financial support from the World Bank was withdrawn following the scandal surrounding the former mayor and the public works contracts. The project was put on hold by the then-national Transport Minister German Cardona because of this as well as the disagreement among the candidates for the 2011 Bogotá mayoral elections over the details of the project.

A number of former mayors of Bogotá have criticised the project in recent years. Enrique Peñalosa, whose administration oversaw the construction of the first Transmilenio routes over a decade ago, criticised the scheme in 2008 saying that the money would be wasted as the metro would “do the same as the Transmilenio but cost more”.

In 2009 he was joined by Antanas Mockus and Luis Eduardo Garzón, who said that the project was a luxury and that the money could be better spent on extending the Transmilenio system.

It is expected that once the District Capital has given the assurances to the World Bank that the contract with engineers could be signed within two weeks.