The yet-to-be redeveloped district in Nordhavn will have its very own Metro connection after the City Council yesterday decided to set aside 300 million kroner to build a spur to the area.

The new district will house 40,000 residents and provide 40,000 new jobs and be built in the dilapidated harbour area to the east of the fashionable Østerbro district.

“It’s incredibly important that we provide a high class of public transport such as the Metro as it will make the new district in Nordhavn more attractive, as well as the city as a whole,” mayor Frank Jensen said.

The decision to build the new branch now, well ahead of NordhavnÂ’s redevelopment, was based on a calculation that it would be 300 million kroner cheaper to dig it while the Metro Cityringen line around Copenhagen was already under construction.

The new branch will leave the Cityringen between Østerport and Trianglen stations and first stop at Nordhavn before ending at its second stop in the middle of the redeveloped area.

The City Council is now going about trying to locate the rest of the 2.6 billion kroner needed to dig the branch, though much of it will be found through rising real estate costs and increased ticket sales.

The company behind the Metro, Metroselskabet, is footing the initial 95 million kroner needed to start the preliminary surveying and planning of the route, while parliament today is expected to approve contributing an additional 400 million kroner.

“With the decision to start the preliminary surveying for the new line to Nordhavn, we can ensure that the new development in Nordhavn will be quickly connected to Rådhuspladsen and Central Station which will benefit the whole city,” the transport minister, Henrik Dam Kristensen, said in a press release.

Revised accounts for the city revealed that 600 millioner kroner less was spent in 2011 than was initially thought, which is why the city is able to commit the 300 million kroner to the project.

“It demonstrates a strong budget discipline,”  Jensen said. ”It both gives us some money in the bank to support the council and also some money to inject into new activities.”

Cityringen is expected to be ready in 2018 with the Nordhavn branch opening the year after. Frederiksberg Council, which owns a small stake in Metroselskabet also supports the expansion.