29/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - New EIB loan for strengthening Istanbul's resilience to earthquakes. On Tuesday 29 October, as Turkey was inaugurating the Marmaray - the first tunnel under the Bosphorus linking the European and Asian banks of the town - the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that it would grant Turkey another loan of €200 million as follow up support to earthquake-risk mitigation in Istanbul. The EIB funds are being provided as part of the Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project (ISMEP), launched in 2006. ISMEP is co-funded by the EIB and other international finance institutions. In a press release, the EIB recalls that it made €1.05 billion available for the Marmaray project to connect Asia and Europe. (OL/transl.fl)