Amsterdam city council has decided to press ahead with the construction of its controversial metro link between the north and south of the city.

The project has been hit by serious financial and technical problems for many years.
However, last month a city council commission recommended completion of the metro. Otherwise €1.7bn would have been wasted, the commission said.
Hans Gerson, who is in charge of the NoordZuid line, said the agreement was a ‘historic moment’.
The total cost of the project is now expected to reach €3.1bn. The original budget was €1.46bn. The metro was due to have been completed in 2011 but that date has now been put back to at least 2017.