Construction for the Thomson-East Coast Line's (TEL) Marine Parade MRT station will start by the first quarter of 2016, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Friday.
The contract to build the station and associated tunnels was awarded to Samsung C&T Corporation for about $555 million, the LTA said. There were five other firms which also submitted bids for the project.
It is the first civil contract to be awarded for the East Coast stretch of the TEL, a nine-station, 13-kilometre line that will run through the eastern parts of the island, such as Tanjong Rhu, Siglap, Upper East Coast and Bedok South.
The East Coast stretch will be completed in two stages, with the first seven stations from Tanjong Rhu to Bayshore, including Marine Parade, to be ready in 2023, while the remaining two stations will be completed in 2024.
The East Coast section and Thomson stretch, which serves the north-south corridor, combine to form the 43-km, 31 station TEL.
The TEL will bring new connections to commuters living in the east. For example, a resident travelling from East Coast to Orchard will have his journey time cut by almost half, from 75 minutes to 45 minutes.
Besides building the Marine Parade station, Samsung C&T Corporation is now involved in the construction of Downtown Line 3 Expo and Tampines East stations, as well as TEL Caldecott station that interchanges with the Circle Line.
The Korean company was previously involved in the construction of the North-South Line's Marina South Pier station and Downtown Line 1's Telok Ayer station.