19 May 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Tuesday that the process of launching a tender for the construction of a third bridge over the Bosporus could start in the next two-and-a-half months.
Speaking to reporters in İstanbul, Yıldırım said feasibility studies for the construction of the bridge, which will connect Sarıyer’s Garipçe village on the European side with Beykoz’s Poyrazköy neighborhood on the Asian side over the Bosporus, were under way and that the tender would open before the end of the summer. “We expect the studies to be finalized in two-and-a-half months. Following that we will open a tender,” he explained, adding that the government hopes the firm undertaking the construction will be announced before 2011.The third bridge, along with a North Marmara Highway, is anticipated to cost the state a total of $6 billion. The government has dismissed claims that the recently announced third Bosporus bridge will destroy forests in northern İstanbul, arguing that it was a critical project to address the overwhelming traffic problem in the city.
