Ankara steps up clock tower building ambition

Hacer BOYACIOĞLU ANKARA - Hürriyet

Clock towers look set to mushroom across the Turkish capital, so Ankara residents will no longer have any excuses for forgetting the time.

The Ankara Metropolitan Municipality has ordered the building of more than 50 clock towers in the Turkish capital, as the country prepares for the March 30 local elections. 

The municipality has opened tenders for the building of 52 clock towers, worth a total of 21.7 million Turkish liras. 

A company won the tender for the building of 16 towers with an offer of 4.2 million in April 2013. In a separate bid for 34 clock towers in June 2013, another firm won with a bid of 5.8 million.

A third firm recently won the contract to build two extra clock towers and two gates to the city, with an offer worth 11.4 million Turkish liras. 

Turkey’s capital city therefore leads other provinces choking dust in the race to build clock towers. According to the Public Procurement Authority, the country’s other 80 provinces have opened barely 10 clock towers combined in recent years. 

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, who is running for a fifth term in office, said in 2012 that he was planning to give his city the most clock towers in the world. 

Gökçek, of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), is challenged by Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavaş and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidate Mevlüt Karakaya in the upcoming elections.