Turkey signs 544 million euros rail project loans
Reporter.gr: 13 March 2006
Turkey's Treasury said it had signed two loan deals on Monday worth a total 544 million euros ($649 million) for various rail projects, one of them involving construction of a tunnel below Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait.
It signed a 400 million euro loan with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance improvements on existing suburban rail lines linking up with the tunnel and to make purchases for the tunnel project itself.
With this loan, total borrowing from the EIB for the project amounts to 1.050 billion euros.
The Treasury also said it had signed a 143.7 million euro loan deal with the World Bank to develop signalling on two railway lines, one from Yenice to Bogazkopru and the other from Mersin to Toprakkale, and to finance other projects for the Turkish State Railways.
The tunnel linking Asia and Europe via the Bosphorus is part of the multi-billion dollar project that will connect suburban train lines on the two sides of Turkey's largest city.