Polimeks to construct Turkmen Olympic City

ASGHABAT - Anatolia News Agency

Local Polimeks also built the world’s largest 47.6-meter Ferris wheel in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat. AA photo

Polimeks, a leading Turkish construction firm in Turkmenistan, has received authorization from Ashgabat authorities to sign a deal for the second phase of a project to build an Olympic City in the Turkmen capital, according to reports.

Turkish contractors, who have already assumed 70 percent of construction projects in Turkmenistan, were awarded other further tenders.

The Olympic City Project is set to be completed before the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Art Games. Turkmenistan will be the first country in Central Asia to host the games.

The second phase of the project is expected to cost approximately $1.4 billion. The phase includes facilities such as a closed athletics complex, a 5,000-seat-capacity water complex, a 4,000-seat-capacity indoor tennis court and a hotel.

The construction of the Olympic City kicked off in 2010 on 1.5 million square meters of land. The total cost of the project is projected to be around $5 billion. The Turkmen government allocated $2 billion for the first phase and $1.4 billion for the second phase.

Further projects
Turkish contractors won more than $2.6 billion in construction projects in the first five months of the year following President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s opening of new tenders.

Turkish construction and textile firms are constructing hundreds of buildings, such as a sports complex, a port, a school and a hospital, along with highways, bridges, railways, drilling platforms, pipelines, textile plants and hotels in the Central Asian Turkic state.

Turkish firms assumed 63 projects last year worth a total of about $3.27 billion. In the previous year, Turkish firms undertook projects which amounted to $4.5 billion despite global economic woes.

The total business volume of Turkish construction firms in Turkmenistan has surpassed $30 billion since 1991. Some 1,500 construction projects, worth $32 billion, are currently being built.

Çakır İnşaat recently won a tender to construct a marriage office for $10 billion. Cotam, another Turkish construction company, will construct a sanatorium with a 200-bed capacity in Daşoguz province for $30 billion while also installing Turkmenistan’s first modern livestock complex in the same province.

Soykaya İnşaat, meanwhile, will build a railway station and residences in the country’s western Balkan province for $45 million.

Norsel, a textile company, plans to increase its presence in the country. The firm will install two cotton processing plants with a capacity of 6,000 and modernize an existing plant in Lebap province. The total cost of these three projects is estimated at $110 million.

GAP İnşaat, a subsidiary of Çalık Holding, a conglomerate based in Istanbul, will build immediate support centers in all five of the country’s provinces for $105 million.

Another new construction project undertaken this year by a Turkish firm is a cardiology hospital in Ashgabat. Efor İnşaat will build the hospital for $65 million.