Contract For Istanbul Strait Tube Crossing Construction To Be Signed

ANKARA - Contract for construction of the system which will connect Istanbul's Asian and European sides with an immersed tube tunnel under the Istanbul Strait will be signed on Thursday.
Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim and Japanese Taisei-Kumagai Fumi-Gama Industry consortium which submitted a bid of 89.7 billion Japanese yens in the tender for the project, will sign the turn-key contract.
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.
(UK-AÖ) 05.05.2004