The first civil engineering contract for the East Coast stretch of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) has been awarded to Samsung C&T for about $555 million.

The contract is to build the Marine Parade station and associated tunnels. Construction will start by the first quarter of 2016.

Samsung C&T, which is currently involved in the construction of the Downtown Line 3's Expo and Tampines East stations, as well as the TEL's Caldecott station that interchanges with the Circle Line, beat five other firms to the latest project.

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.

The East Coast section of the TEL is a nine-station, 13km section that will run through eastern parts of the island such as Tanjong Rhu, Siglap, Upper East Coast and Bedok South.

Commuters in these areas are currently not served by the MRT.

This 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 - Bedok South and Sungei Bedok - will be completed in 2024.

Adrian Lim