17 October
2024
We are talking about an agreement worth about 3 billion dollars.
Turkey is close to an agreement with the World Bank on the financing of the railway construction project across the Bosphorus with a total cost of 4 billion dollars, said the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraglu.
We are talking about an agreement worth about 3 billion dollars. The technical details of the loan package are still being negotiated.
According to Uraglu, after the completion of the project, Turkey will most likely hold a construction auction together with the World Bank, possibly in the first months of 2025.
This railway should become part of the trade corridor - the so-called "Road of Development" project, which will connect Europe with the countries of the Middle East and Asia. Turkey has already held negotiations with the United Arab Emirates on financing the project.
Uraglu previously said the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank could also provide financing.
The railway will pass over the Sultan Selim Yavuz Suspension Bridge, which was built to connect the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. This bridge, practically at the mouth of the Bosphorus, was the widest and highest bridge in the world at the time of its opening in 2016. Investments in its construction amounted to about 3 billion dollars.
The shores of the Bosphorus Strait are now connected by three bridges and two tunnels. The Marmaray railway tunnel with a total length of 13.6 km (1.4 km passes under water) connects two districts of Istanbul.