ANKARA - The countdown has begun for construction of the system which will connect Istanbul's Asian and European sides with an immersed tube tunnel under the Istanbul Strait.
Sources told the A.A correspondent on Sunday that a technical contract was signed with Japanese Taisei-Kumagai Fumi-Gama Industry consortium which submitted a bid of 89.7 billion Japanese yens in the tender for the project.
The contract was sent to Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC), which will finance the project, for approval.
The ''turn-key delivery'' contract is expected to be signed this month.
Under the schedule of the project, construction of the system will start in June.
The project called ''Marmaray'' is envisaged to finish in 2008 and estimated to cost nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars.
Marmaray includes a 13.3 km Istanbul Strait crossing and the upgrade of 63 km of suburb line to create a 76.3 km high capacity line between Gebze and Halkali. The Istanbul Strait crossing will be done by a 1.8 km earthquake-proof immersed tube, assembled from 18 sections. This tube will be accessed by bored tunnels from Yenikapi on the European side and Sogutlucesme on the Asian side of Istanbul. Intermediate stations will be done at Sirkeci and Uskudar. An interchange station with Istanbul metro and light rail will be built at Yenikapi.
The upgrade of the suburb lines requires the laying of a third track along most of the way to increase the line capacity up to 75.000 passengers per hour in each direction. Signaling must also be modernized to allow 2 minutes headway service. The 41 stations along the line will be refurbished and the platform lengthened to 180 m.
Meanwhile, the loan negotiations for the second stage of the system will be held during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's scheduled visit to Japan between April 10 and 14, 2004.
(UK-MS) 04.04.2004