Istanbul University sues ministry municipality for damage from Marmaray

Özge Eğrikar ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

Hürriyet photo

Istanbul University has opened a lawsuit against the Transportation Ministry, Istanbul Greater Municipality (İBB) and Taisei-Gama-Nurol companies for the damage on the Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty building caused by the Marmaray construction.

The university claimed the yearly cost of the damage has been 3.9 million Turkish Liras, which sums up to at least 15.8 million liras over the past five years, in its petition to the court.

Claiming that the digging from the Marmaray’s construction has caused slipping, collapses and cracks in the building, which is used by one of Turkey’s oldest faculties in Istanbul’s Fatih districts, the university said the defendants should pay for the costs of strengthening the building as well.

Turkey’s oldest University, Istanbul University, used to have one medical faculty until 1967. After that, it was divided into two and Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty and Çapa Medical Faculty were founded under the roof of Istanbul University.

After Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty’s building had sudden collapses and cracks on Nov. 17, 2011, the building was evacuated. The policlinics were moved to other buildings that were already crowded. In two years, the evacuated buildings have become more decrepit.

A commission made of academics from Istanbul University’s Engineering Faculty, Prof. Namık Kemal Öztorun, Assistant Prof. Erdem Damcı, Assistant Prof. Fethi Ahmet Yüksel and Dr. Barış Sayın, examined the reasons for the collapses. The commission concluded the damage was caused by the Marmaray’s construction.

Istanbul University’s rectorate lawyer Dilek Temiz Özbek filed a complaint to an Istanbul civil court of first instance against the Transportation Ministry, İBB and the consortium that came together for the Marmaray’s construction, Taisei-Gama-Nurol.

The petition said no strengthening measures or precautions were taken to protect the Medical Faculty building, which is only 15 meters away from the tunnel’s construction and the university was not informed about it, even verbally. The building cannot be used anymore and this would bring 15.8 million liras of costs to the university for the next five years in total, said the petition, adding the total cost until now is 3.3 million liras. The cost of reinforcing some buildings amounts to 9 million liras, said the petition.