TURKEY: Following the award of a new contract, construction is set to restart on the final extension of Istanbul’s metro Line M4 which serves Sabiha Gökçen airport, and on Line M10 which will provide a through route linking the airport with Pendik main line station and İçmeler further east.
The new lines will allow metro services to run directly to Sabiha Gökçen Airport from Pendik and İçmeler, in addition to the M4 trains to the airport from Kadiköy which began October 2.
On September 30 Istanbul municipality signed a TL2∙897bn contract for construction with Özgün İnşaat. The project had originally been tendered in March 2017 and a TL1∙614bn contract awarded to a consortium of Cengiz Insaat and Alsim Alarko Sanayii. However, work stopped later that year when Turkey entered a period of economic instability and central government funding for infrastructure projects was halted.
In 2020 the municipality secured external financing of €120m allowing construction to resume, but in July this year with work 33% completed the contractor was given permission by presidential decree to cease its activity, with the transport ministry subsequently allowing the municipality to call a new tender.
Construction is split into two phases, with work on the first phase involving the extension of M4 by 1 km to Kaynarca Merkez. The second phase will see the construction of M10 linking Pendik station to M4 at Kaynarca Merkez and the final 5 km M4 extension to İçmeler, serving four stations. All of the work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
- The treasury has approved a €75m EBRD loan to Istanbul municipality for completion of Umraniye - Ataşehir - Göztepe metro route M12.
