Hurriyat Daily reported that the funding for USD 1.2 billion tunnel under Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait will be ready by the end of the Q1.

Mr Basar Arioglu MD at Yapi Merkezi which is leading the project said that about USD 850 million of the financing will come from lenders and the rest will be equity provided by the project’s investors.

He said that we are now doing the engineering study and we will begin the construction once the finance contract is completed which we expect to close in the first quarter.

The project incorporating 15 kilometers road with 5 kilometers stretch of tunnel will ease car traffic on two suspension bridges joining the city’s European and Asian sides serving the 12 million populations.

South Korea’s SK Holdings’ SKEC, Kukdong Engineering & Construction, Samwhan, Hanshin Construction and Namkwang Engineering & Construction are working with Istanbul based Yapi Merkezi on the tunnel.

(Sourced from Hurriyat Daily News)