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Alternately described as the long-lost link between
Europe and Asia or the end of the city of Istanbul as we know it, the
world's deepest underwater railway tunnel was opened on Tuesday under
the Bosphorus, connecting two continents by rail for the first time.
Almost a mile of the 8.5-mile (13.6km) tunnel between the European and
Asian sides of Turkey's largest city is immersed under 56 metres (184ft)
of water.
A railway tunnel under the Bosphorus straits, one of the world's busiest
shipping lanes, was first suggested by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmejid in
1860.
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Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former mayor of
Istanbul determined to leave his mark on city, opened the Marmaray
tunnel more than four years after it was due to be completed. It is yet
to be fully operational.
The project was beset by long delays owing to archaeological
excavations: the remains of a Byzantine shipping fleet, the largest
discovered, were found at the main metro terminus in Yenikapi, prompting
Erdogan to voice contempt that construction was held up because of "clay
pots" and "other stuff".
Japan invested $1bn of the $4bn (£3.4bn) cost of the project. The
Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, attended Tuesday's opening
ceremony.
Dubbed the "iron silk road" by the Turkish government, Erdogan said the
Marmaray rail line would connect "London to Beijing", reviving the
ancient trade routes across Asia to Europe.
Engineers and urban planners, however, have voiced concern about the
safety of the underwater section, some describing it as a death trap.
Quoting a report by Rıza Behçet, an engineer who has worked on the
project for eight years, the Istanbul Chamber of Architects warned the
tunnel lacked an electronic warning system and that the flexibly linked
parts of the immersed section would be prone to rupture and water
leakage in the case of earthquakes.
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Istanbul is above a seismic hotspot. Tectonic plates meet under the Sea
of Marmara, putting the city at risk of a major earthquake within a
generation.
According to Turkish media, Behçet warned "he would not get on the
Marmaray metro line, and nobody else should either".
The country's transport minister, Binali Yildirim, countered such
claims, saying the Marmaray tunnel was "the safest place in Istanbul"
and that the structure would withstand up to 9-magnitude quakes. On
Monday, the city's mayor, Kadir Topbas, on Monday said all test drives
had been completed successfully and "all possibilities have been taken
into consideration in all seriousness."
Other experts have criticised the government's rush to open the project
on Tuesday to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the modern Turkish
republic.
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"Serious answers need to be given to these serious allegations," said
Tayfun Kahraman, a board member of the Chamber of Urban Planners in
Istanbul. "There needs to be an independent assessment of the risks and
security gaps in the Marmaray project, and the findings have to be made
public. This cannot be brushed aside with a mere promise by the
government."
He conceded that the project – once its safety was guaranteed – was an
important step towards easing the notorious congestion in a city of 15
million people. "We have always underlined that public transport needs
to be taken off the road. In this sense, Marmaray supports this
development in the right direction."
The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people a hour in
either direction. According to government estimates, 1.5 million people
will cross the strait every day on the Marmaray line.
The subway crossing will take four minutes, much faster than the ferries
which criss-cross the Bosphorus.
Prof Murat Güvenç, head of the Urban Studies Institute at Sehir
University, Istanbul, worries that no research had been conducted into
the socioeconomic impact of the new rail line.
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"Marmaray is uniquely a technical project. We have no idea how it will
affect the city, and the people in it, if it will change life in the
city for better or worse," he said. "But we can be sure that the
vulnerable residents of Istanbul will feel the impact more than the
others. A mega project like this will cause major rent increases and
profiteering by some."
Citing the lack of government control mechanisms in the real estate
market, Güvenç said poorer residents and small businesses were likely to
be priced out of neighbourhoods adjacent to the new metro line.
"Increased overall accessibility – access to transport, shopping,
culture etc – will cause rents in formerly cheaper areas to rise
quickly. It will substantially change the social strata of the city.
With the opening of the Marmaray line, the Bosphorus Strait will cease
to be an obstacle. It means the end of Istanbul as we know it."
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