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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency
Turkey’s government signed a build-operate-transfer deal Monday with a consortium of six construction companies to carry out the country's largest-ever highway project, which will link Istanbul with İzmir.
The highway will reduce travel time between Istanbul and İzmir from six hours, 30 minutes to about three hours when it is completed in 2017.
The $11-billion mega-project will include the world's second-longest suspension bridge built over the Gulf of İzmit. The bridge, meanwhile, will be 3,000 meters long.
The government plans to break ground for the project within two months while seven companies will work on the project. Some 10,000 jobs will be created during the project’s initial phases, although the highway is expected to provide work for 50,000 toward the latter stages of its construction, Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said at the signing ceremony in Ankara.
Furthermore, the project will help Turkey to integrate to European Union.
After the highway is completed, economic output in adjacent provinces such as Istanbul, Yalova, Bursa, Balıkesir and Manisa is expected to increase, Yıldırım said.
“It takes time to realize big projects. It took more than one year after the bid of the project. During this time, while companies, including consortiums have been continuing their meetings uninterrupted, [meetings] fundamental to the contract were held by the Treasury, State Planning Organization and our Ministry,” said Yıldırım.
The consortium – consisting of Turkish construction firms Nurol, Özaltın, Makyol, Yüksel and Gökçay and Italian-based Astaldi – will transfer the highway to government control in roughly 22 years, including construction time.
“The project is the largest to be carried out at one time under the build-operate-transfer model in Turkey's history,” Yıldırım said.
In the past, it used to take between 45 minutes and one hour to pass the gulf, Yıldırım said, but added that motorists will be able to transit the gulf in just six minutes once the bridge is complete.
"According to our calculations, the project will lead to time and fuel savings of $870 million a year, which is a presumptive return on investment in 10 or 11 years." he said
Yıldırım also said the highway around the İzmit Gulf – especially the 90-kilometer-long section extending to the district of Gebze – could no longer handle the traffic capacity, resulting in time and fuel wasting.
After the highway construction, the area’s current traffic load will decrease 30 percent, he said.
ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency
Turkey’s government signed a build-operate-transfer deal Monday with a consortium of six construction companies to carry out the country's largest-ever highway project, which will link Istanbul with İzmir.
The highway will reduce travel time between Istanbul and İzmir from six hours, 30 minutes to about three hours when it is completed in 2017.
The $11-billion mega-project will include the world's second-longest suspension bridge built over the Gulf of İzmit. The bridge, meanwhile, will be 3,000 meters long.
The government plans to break ground for the project within two months while seven companies will work on the project. Some 10,000 jobs will be created during the project’s initial phases, although the highway is expected to provide work for 50,000 toward the latter stages of its construction, Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said at the signing ceremony in Ankara.
Furthermore, the project will help Turkey to integrate to European Union.
After the highway is completed, economic output in adjacent provinces such as Istanbul, Yalova, Bursa, Balıkesir and Manisa is expected to increase, Yıldırım said.
“It takes time to realize big projects. It took more than one year after the bid of the project. During this time, while companies, including consortiums have been continuing their meetings uninterrupted, [meetings] fundamental to the contract were held by the Treasury, State Planning Organization and our Ministry,” said Yıldırım.
The consortium – consisting of Turkish construction firms Nurol, Özaltın, Makyol, Yüksel and Gökçay and Italian-based Astaldi – will transfer the highway to government control in roughly 22 years, including construction time.
“The project is the largest to be carried out at one time under the build-operate-transfer model in Turkey's history,” Yıldırım said.
In the past, it used to take between 45 minutes and one hour to pass the gulf, Yıldırım said, but added that motorists will be able to transit the gulf in just six minutes once the bridge is complete.
"According to our calculations, the project will lead to time and fuel savings of $870 million a year, which is a presumptive return on investment in 10 or 11 years." he said
Yıldırım also said the highway around the İzmit Gulf – especially the 90-kilometer-long section extending to the district of Gebze – could no longer handle the traffic capacity, resulting in time and fuel wasting.
After the highway construction, the area’s current traffic load will decrease 30 percent, he said.
