Seven Turkish banks have agreed to provide the necessary funds to build Istanbul’s third bridge. İbrahim Çeçen, chairman of the IC İçtaş company (part of the winning consortium), announced that the banks will provide USD 2.4 billion over 10 years. The construction is slated to start in May according to the news.
“The project preparations have begun and the loan agreement with seven banks is at a final stage so we plan to get the approval of the Treasury in April to lay the foundation of the bridge in May,” the chairman said.
The Turkish-Italian venture İçtaş-Astaldi is the construction consortium that was awarded the construction of this new bridge in Istanbul which will be ready for use by the end of 2015 according to Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım. Right now, the lawyers of each party look for the best contract form, and as soon as this contract will be ready and signed, the construction will start. It is expected that the contract will be ready by April.
“This bridge will be a millennium engineering masterpiece,” Çeçen added.
He didn’t disclose further details about the bridge. Apparently he only let people understand that the legs of the bridge will look like the letter “A.” Çeçen also said that drilling operations for this bridge already started.
İçtaş İnşaat-Astaldi consortium won the bid proposing the shortest period of time for the project: 10 years, two months and 20 days. The second offer suggested a time frame of 14 years, nine months and 19 days, and there was an important controversy on this four years and seven months difference between the two top offers.