Istanbul North Rail Crossing Draws 25 Bids, With Chinese Contractors Among the Contenders for the $8.3 Billion Project
Türkiye's General Directorate of Infrastructure Investments (AYGM) collected 25 bids on November 11 for the four construction lots of the Istanbul North Rail Crossing (INRAIL). The new 127-kilometre double-track, electrified line will cross the Bosphorus via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge north of Istanbul, linking industrial zones and airports on both sides of the strait. Its designed annual freight capacity is 50 million tonnes, up from about 3 million tonnes of rail freight capacity across the strait today.
Chinese contractors are among the bidders. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation bid on its own for the two middle lots, including the section with the Bosphorus crossing. China Railway Construction and China Electric Power Construction, among others, joined a consortium led by Turkish contractor Limak Insaat that bid for all four lots. Italy's Webuild group, together with Turkish IC Ictas, also competed for the entire route. AYGM will now evaluate the bids.
The project costs about $8.3 billion and is financed by international lenders including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has said the line should be completed in four to five years, eliminating the bottleneck between Asia and Europe.
The railway is part of Türkiye's Middle Corridor strategy, meant to let freight trains from China and Central Asia reach Europe via the Caspian and Türkiye without squeezing through Istanbul's urban rail network. Cross-Bosphorus rail freight currently relies mainly on the Marmaray tunnel, whose capacity is long saturated.
(Source: RailFreight)
Source: RailFreight
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：伊斯坦布尔博斯普鲁斯海峡天际线（资料图，本站档案图复用）；新线将经海峡北侧的亚武兹苏丹塞利姆大桥跨越海峡。照片：Jwslubbock，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Bosphorus skyline in Istanbul (file photo; GSM archive reuse); the new line will cross the strait via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge to the north. Photo: Jwslubbock, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
