Turkey Sweetens Bosporus Bridge Project After Receiving No Bids

By Benjamin Harvey

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — Turkey will try again to attract bidders to build a third Bosporus bridge in Istanbul, dropping a requirement for new highways and connecting roads, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said.

The government looked into why there were no bids in response to its first offer and decided on a simplified project, with a guarantee of “heavy traffic,” Babacan said in a television interview with CNBC-e in Davos, Switzerland.

The project will be offered on a build-operate-transfer basis and has an estimated value of $2.5 billion, Babacan said. The bridge will be the third to span the Bosporus Strait that divides Istanbul’s Asian and European sides.

Turkey aims to reopen the tender in April and to begin construction by the end of the year, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said yesterday. The government canceled the project after receiving no bids by Jan. 10.

–Editors: Alan Purkiss, Chris Peterson

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul at bharvey11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

via Turkey Sweetens Bosporus Bridge Project After Receiving No Bids – Businessweek.