Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route will be connected to Marmaray Tunnel allowing direct transport from Azerbaijan to Europe, said Binali Yildirim, Turkey’s Minister of Transport. High-speed projects and the Marmaray project make Turkey the preferred country in the transit of passengers and freight between the two continents, Asia and Europe. Moreover, with the inauguration of Marmaray Tunnel, scheduled for 2013, this becomes the second important railway submarine tunnel of Europe. The parties involved in Eurasian projects estimate that after the finalization of major railway projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and Marmaray Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia will become the most stable countries on the Asia-Europe Corridor.Delayed for a long period of time, due to very important archaeological discoveries, today construction works at Marmaray project are progressing rapidly. According to the estimates of the Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim the opening of the tunnel under the Bosporus Strait is scheduled for the begining of 2014. The project on the tunnel under the Bosporus Strait, part of Marmaray, is considered the project of the century and has a major importance due to its direct railway connection between Europe and Asia. The project will include the construction of a 1.3km completely submerged tunnel of a total 13.6 km of tunnel. The existing railway line between Halkali, on the European side and Gebze, on the Asia side, will be fully upgraded and the number of lines will be increased to three. Two lines of this route, covering a total of 76 km, will provide urban transport services and other lines will be used by high-speed trains.
The city of Istanbul, just like many other big cities, is suffocated by intense traffic and pollution, and the few transport systems to deal with such a high transport demand (around 12 million people travel daily in and through Istanbul) are also an impediment. But Marmaray Project is about to solve part of the traffic problems in the city on the bank of Bosporus. It will reduce car dependency, and the energy consumed, produced through own resources, will limit the import of fuels. It is estimated that the travel time between Istanbul and Ankara will be reduced by up to 3 hours.
The project is financed by the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) – USD 950 Million and the European Investment Bank (EIB) – EUR 650 Billion.
The estimates of the Turkish Ministry of Transport show that 1.5 million citizens will use the Marmaray Tunnel in their daily journeys in 2015 and their number will increase up to 1.7 million by 2025.
The Turkish Ministry of Transport believes that the citizens will reduce the funds allocated to daily travelling by using urban rail transport and by giving up their personal cars.
Currently, the railway network in Istanbul serves 3.6% of total traffic in the city. After the commissioning of the new rail link, it is estimated that Istanbul will be able to create links to other cities which have rail transport systems and that traffic on the rail network of Istanbul will reach 28% of total traffic in the city.
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