Gov’t offers new scheme for bridge

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

In a fresh push to revive the North Marmara Highway project that includes building a third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait the government has come up with a plan in which the bridge and the highway will be put out to tender separately, two ministers said yesterday.

“We have decided to put the third bridge, which is needed urgently, and its link roads out to tender as a build-operate-transfer scheme. […] The project will be limited to the third bridge and its link roads. So the cost of the project will come down to $2.5 billion from $6 billion,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to ntvmsnbc.com.

The mega-transportation project, which spans 414 km from Adapazarı to Tekirdağ, has taken a new turn after it failed to attract any bids from a total of 18 companies Jan. 10. Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım had signaled to go with an alternate “plan B” for the third bridge when it appeared the tender would fail. “With the change we have made [to the project, only] the bridge and the 60 km of the road and link roads of the bridge will be made by build-operate-transfer scheme,” Yıldırım told the Anatolia news agency yesterday. The highways would be built simultaneously with the budgetary facilities and the bids would be received in April, he said.