Consultants are to be appointed soon to carry out preliminary engineering for Istanbul’s $1.6bn Marmara-Bosphorus rail tunnel in Turkey. Technical bids have been called by the General Directorate of Railways, Harbours and Airports. Plans call for a 13.3km underground rail link with five stations from Central Istanbul to Marmara. The tunnel under the Bosphorus strait will be the world’s deepest underwater crossing. The Japanese Bank for International Co-operation has agreed to provide $870M to finance the first phase of the scheme.
