Istanbul canal project will set up an artificial waterway that will split Istanbul’s European side into two and create an island between the European and Asian sides

[rick murphy]

Hey, anti-Turkish hate mongers: Eat your misserable hearts out!!!


+++++++++++++



http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/crazy-istanbul-canal-project-sees-first-step.aspx?pageID=238&nID=46580&NewsCatID=344


May/10/2013

‘Crazy’ Istanbul canal project sees first step

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said they had begun studies
for the giant Kanal Istanbul project with the Turkish Transportation
Ministry and would be working on structuring a partnership and tender
model for it.

The project, which will set up an artificial waterway that will split
Istanbul’s European side into two and create an island between the
European and Asian sides, is the one of the most ambitious of the
giant projects the Turkish government has been putting a special
emphasis on.

“Yesterday I talked with our transportation minister on the phone and
I told him, let’s create our format for the Kanal Istanbul and let’s
make our tender,” Babacan told reporters yesterday during a press
meeting he held in Ankara.

The project will be a private-public partnership project as it will be
undertaken according to a build-operate-transfer model, Babacan said,
adding all of these projects required a custom-made preparation
process.

He also said the construction of the third Istanbul airport, which was
recently won by a Turkish consortium for $22 billion, will probably be
finished before Kanal Istanbul.

Aiming to soothe concerns about the financing of these giant
transportation and urbanization projects like the third Istanbul
airport and bridge, he said the government had been keeping an eye on
the possible responsibilities that might hinder them.The markets do
not have questions like whether these projects will put a burden on
the state and the Treasury, he said, if they did, the Treasury’s debt
interest rate wouldn’t be falling to historic low levels.

“There is no problem with state guarantees in mega projects as the
risk is split over a long term,” he said.

The expectations from these projects also should be for the long term,
he asserted.