Transportation Minister Mehmet Habib Soluk has announced that the Ankara-İstanbul high-speed train line will cross the third bridge to be built on İstanbul’s Bosporus.
Mehmet Habib Soluk (R) attended a program on a train with State Minister Cemiş Çiçek (C) in Ankara.
Soluk told the Anatolia news agency that the line running north of Sakarya’s Lake Sapanca will split in İstanbul’s Sultanbeyli district, on the city’s Asian side. From there, one branch will connect to the Marmaray rail tunnel and the other will go over the third bridge planned for construction in the vicinity of Garipçe on the European side and Beykoz’s Poyrazköy district on the Asian side.
Recalling that the third bridge will be built as part of the North Marmara Highway Project, Soluk said it would include both a highway and a rail line. More details will be released after the project is awarded in a tender this summer, he noted.
“We will soon finalize the issue after discussing it with the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality,” he added.
Soluk also stated that the ongoing construction of the Eurasia Tunnel, an İstanbul strait under-seabed tunnel that would connect the Asian and European sides of İstanbul at the Harem and Sarayburnu districts of the city, will ease İstanbul’s traffic problems when it is completed in about three-and-a-half years.
Speaking about the uncompleted metro lines in the capital city of Ankara, Soluk said the construction has been undertaken by the Ministry of Transportation following an agreement signed by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the ministry, adding that the metro construction projects are included in the state’s investment program under the authority of the Cabinet. “It is impossible to complete construction on all of these lines at the same time because of differences in progress and the lengths of the lines. We aim to finish the Ankara metros within two years. Construction may start in September,” Soluk said.
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