Newsletter No. 577
News-Analysis
April 7, 2007

 

MARUBENI-LED CONSORTIUM WINS BID FOR THE MARMARAY PROJECT

Marubeni has announced that its bid to build a commuter railway tunnel beneath the Bosphorus Straits connecting Asia and Europe -- also called the Marmaray Project -- has been accepted. The Marubeni bid has been done in coordination with a consortium that also includes the Turkish company Dogus and the French company Alstom. The value of the contract is estimated to be at about US$1.1 billion.

The projects website explains as follows: “This Project is one of the major transportation infrastructure projects in the world at present. The entire upgraded and new railway system will be approximately 76 km long. The main structures and systems; include the immersed tube tunnel, bored tunnels, cut-and-cover tunnels, at-grade structures, three new underground stations, 37 surface stations (renovation and upgrading), operations control centre, yards, workshops, maintenance facilities, upgrading of existing tracks including a new third track on ground, completely new electrical and mechanical systems and procurement of modern railway vehicles.”

Map: The Marmaray Project
Source: Marmaray Project Website

Initial bids for the project were opened in July 2005, and Marubeni’s consortium won preferential negotiating rights in April 2006. I gather that an earlier bid led by Japan’s Taisei Corporation had failed, but the complete sequence of events is not yet clear to me. At any rate, the project is now entering its second stage, and is expected to be completed in late 2009.

The Japanese government had earlier provided yen loans for this project through the JBIC, and that no doubt enhanced Marubeni’s prospects. Also, on January 13, 2006, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Marmaray Project platform together with Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim (as reported for us by Erdal Kucukyalcin in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 159).

This project has also been noted briefly in Shingetsu Newsletter Nos. 231 and 406. If any Shingetsu member knows the complete story of the Japanese involvement in the Marmaray Project, an extended account would be very welcome here.