Ankara metro construction resumes soon

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım visits the Keçiören subway station in the capital city of Ankara. İHA photo

Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım announced yesterday that construction work would resume within 15 days on three new lines of the Ankara subway to make them operational in 2014.

Construction on the three lines had begun years ago but soon grounded to a halt amid financial difficulties that eventually forced the handover of the project last year from the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality to the government.

The tenders were finalized in December 2011 and contracts will be signed with the winning companies this and next week so that construction work can begin within 15 days, Yıldırım told a press conference.

New timetable
Under the timetable the minister gave, the Çayyolu-Kızılay and Sincan-Batıkent lines will be completed in two years, while the Keçiören-Tandoğan line will be ready six months after that.

“We will work day and night, on three shifts, to complete these three lines as soon as possible. The residents of Ankara have waited a long time for these projects to be completed. We are planning to make those three lines operational by mid-2014,” he said.

Yıldırım explained the metro train sets were still up for tender and the bidding deadline would expire Feb. 14. The ministry will buy a total of 324 train sets, with a condition for a 51-percent share for Turkish businesses to promote the local industry, he said. However, due to the urgent nature of the demand, the first 90 trains will be required to have a local contribution of 30 percent, he added.