ISTANBUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Turkey has reached preliminary agreements with six international lenders to provide $6.75 billion for a new railway line across the Bosphorus, in what would be Turkey's largest foreign-funded rail project, Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Tuesday.

He added that once completed, the line, which will run through northern Istanbul, is expected to transport 33 million passengers and 30 million tons of goods annually, noting that it will open "a new era in logistics" by enhancing the country's railway capacity between Asia and Europe.

The funding will be used to support the 125-kilometer Northern Ring Railway project, which will carry passengers and goods from Gebze to Halkali via the Sultan Selim Bridge, which connects Istanbul’s two main airports.

The minister said that preliminary agreements had been reached with the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the OPEC Fund for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Oraloglu added, "We aim to complete the tendering process and hand over the site this year so that (construction) work can begin."

Goods can currently be transported by rail across the Bosphorus Strait without interruption via the Marmaray rail tunnel, but only during limited hours each day. According to the ministry's website, only 1.7 million tons of goods were transported via Marmaray between 2020 and October 2025.