The winning group in the tender for the Tel Aviv light rail has been announced, but the battle surrounding the excavation method isn't over yet. TheMarker has found that the Green Party and environmental factions in Tel Aviv have approached National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, urgently requesting the suspension of the project until the issue of excavation is clarified. They have also demanded that the water authority be included in the process immediately, and threaten to turn to the courts if these steps aren't taken.

The environmentalists are demanding that Ben-Eliezer, as the authority responsible for the water economy in Israel, intervene immediately. The concern, TheMarker found, is the deep mining method proposed by MTS, the company awarded the tender, which could cause environmental damage due to the large quantities of ground water that will have to be pumped out during digging.

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According to estimates made by rail-engineering consultants, the mining method MTS proposes involves pumping 50 million cubic meters of water during the five-year construction period, as compared to about four million cubic meters in the conventional "cover and cut" method proposed by tender loser Metro Rail. Additionally, there is a risk of emission of poisonous subterranean gases along part of the route.

Metro Rail has also approached the tenders committee on the issue. A discussion among the specialists on the committee, however, concluded, on the basis of the information available to them, that the deep mining method poses no problem.

Ben-Eliezer's office confirmed that the protests had been received, and said they had been forwarded to the authorized entities in the Water Commission.