Istanbul’s ability to deliver the major infrastructure projects required to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been underlined with the completion of a record-breaking tender for the city’s third international airport – clear evidence of the continued appetite and capacity for development from the public and private sectors in Turkey.
The winning €22.15 billion tender, the largest in the history of the Turkish Republic, was submitted by the Turkish consortium Limak-Kolin-Cengiz-Mapa-Kalyon Joint Venture Group. The auction attracted a number of international bidders for the 25-year “build-operate- transfer” project, set to eventually become the largest airport in the world. Istanbul’s third airport will be situated on the European side of the city and the first phase, with an estimated initial annual passenger capacity of 90 million, is scheduled for completion by 2017.
Chairman of Istanbul 2020, Hasan Arat, commented:
“This is a real milestone in Istanbul’s history. The third airport will help us to keep delivering outstanding levels of service to all the city’s visitors. Turkey’s 2023 Master Plan is testament to this country’s ambition: Istanbul has changed, our place in the world has changed, and we are nowhere near the top of our arc. The development going on in Istanbul will make the city more liveable and better connected for generations to come.”
The tender was completed just as new figures have emerged showing that the number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul in the first four months of 2013 reached 2.92 million, a 21% increase on the same period last year.
Binali Yıldırım, Turkey’s Minister of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications, said after the tender was completed, “This airport will address the needs of Turkey for probably the next 50 years.”
Since its previous Olympic bid, Istanbul has delivered a wide range of extensive infrastructure projects through its transformational development programme. There are a series of other major development projects already underway or planned before the centenary of the Republic in 2023, including the third Bosphorus Bridge, the Haliç Metro, the Eurasia Bosphorus road tunnel and the Marmaray rail tunnel.
