Turkey has reached a preliminary agreement with six international organizations for $6.75 billion to construct the North Ring Railway.
This concerns agreements with the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the OPEC Fund for International Development, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The North Ring Railway project, which runs from the Gebze industrial zone in the Asian part of Istanbul to Sabiha Gokcen Airport, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Istanbul Airport, and Halkalı (the European part), will become Turkey's largest railway project with external financing.
"We plan to complete the tender process this year and start work after handing over the construction site," the minister noted.
According to him, this line will reduce the burden of freight and passenger transport through Marmaray (the railway connection between the Asian and European parts of Istanbul, including an underground tunnel), and for the first time, Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gokcen Airport in different parts of the city will be directly connected by railway.
The total length of the line will be 125 kilometers. The project will include the construction of 44 tunnels with a total length of 59.1 km and 42 bridges with a total length of 22.4 km.
Once completed, the line will be able to transport 33 million passengers and 30 million tons of cargo per year.
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