Complaint filed to halt tender for third airport

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Eighty-five percent of the area on which the Istanbul’s third airport is to be built appears to be forest land, according to the Chamber of Environmental Engineers.

The tender for Istanbul’s third airport, due to be made on May 3, has been sued by the head office of the Turkish Chamber of Environmental Engineers (ÇMO) of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, on the grounds that the project violated the existing legislation for the environmental impact assessment (ÇED) report preparation.

The commission for the examination and assessment for the third airport project’s environmental impact was convened on April 9. The project was suspended on April 22 for 10 working days (excluding both weekends and holidays) in order to gauge public opinion about the project, according to the legislation.

As long as there is no positive or negative assessment on environmental impacts of such projects, any grant of incentive, approval, permission or use cannot be given, say ÇMO officials.

It is also not possible for such projects to start investments or to be put out a call for tender, the chamber said in a statement.

The legal deadline ends for such a report to be prepared is May 5 hence the tender scheduled for May 3 should be postponed, according to the chamber.

Eighty-five percent of the area on which the Istanbul’s third airport is to be built appears to be forestry land or land that still protects its forestry qualification, the chamber officials added.