At the end of October, Turkey inaugurated the Marmaray railway tunnel which crosses the Bosporus Strait in the underground. It is the first railway tunnel in the world to connect two continents, Asia and Europe. The railway tunnel can be transited by around 75,000 passengers an hour in each of the two directions. Every day, the Bosporus Strait is crossed by two million people who have only had two road bridges available so far.
With modern technologies, Turkey has turned into reality the ambitious dream of 150 years ago of Sultan Abdul Medgid, a visionary whose accomplishments and reforms have paved the way for Turkey’s modernisation.
As a small parenthesis, Constanţa Port – Cernavodă Port railway, in Dobrogea region, ruled by the Ottoman Empire back then, was inaugurated in 1856 based on a firman signed by Sultan Abdul Medgid.
“A stable economic environment shaped in the past years has made possible the deve-
lopment of a major project and over the next period, Turkey will definitely develop more such projects”, declared Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül at the opening ceremony of Marmaray Tunnel. “It is just one of the major transport projects that Turkey will develop in the next years. Marmaray railway tunnel is an indicator of Turkey’s economic development”, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim has pointed out that “this railway tunnel contributes not only to Turkey’s development, but also to the economic development of neighbour countries. “In the future, the railway route Baku – Tbilisi – Kars will be connected to Marmaray Tunnel, which permits direct transport from Azerbaijan to Europe, added the Turkish Minister of Transport.
The tunnel which passes below the Bosporus Strait, part of the entire Marmaray project, is believed to be “the project of the century” by the Turkish side and its importance is truly significant because it links Asia and Europe by rail. The project included the construction of 1.3 km of completely submerged tunnel of a total 13.6 km. The railway between Halkali, on the European side and Gebze, on the Asian side, will be fully renewed and there will be three railways. Two lines of this route, covering a total 76 km, will provide urban transport services, while other connected lines will be used by high-speed trains. Moreover, it is the first tunnel to offer both passenger and freight transport services.
Also, the tunnel will reduce car depen-dency and the used electric energy, produced with own resources, will limit fuel import. The travel time between Istanbul and Ankara is expected to be reduced by up to three hours.
The prognoses elaborated by the Turkish Ministry of Transport show that in 2015 1.5 million citizens will used the Marmaray Tunnel for daily journeys and in 2025 the number of citizens transiting the tunnel will increase to 1.7 million.
The total cost of works amounted to TRY 9 Billion (EUR 3.5 Billion).
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