Turkey opens world's fourth-longest suspension bridge

KOCAELI, Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim have inaugurated the Osmangazi Bridge, the fourth-longest suspension bridge in the world and the second longest in Europe.

During an opening speech in Turkey's western Kocaeli province Thursday evening, Erdogan hoped the bridge would bring good luck to people.

The bridge would remain free of charge during the religious festival of Eid immediately after Ramadan,

The 2,682-meter-long structure is named after Osman Gazi, the founder and first leader of the Ottoman Empire. Its construction began in 2010 and cost $1.3 billion.

The president said Turkey could become one of the 10 biggest economies in the world through "production and commerce".

"I would like to mention that to achieve our goal, the most advantaged regions in Turkey are the southeastern and eastern Anatolia regions," Erdogan said.

"When Turkey eliminates terror in those regions, I expect a great pace in terms of growth from these two regions."

He also mentioned that terrorist groups were planting cannabis in southeastern regions, which authorities were destroying.

"Terrorists benefit from drug and human trafficking. They do not care about humanity," he said. "Turkey will be stronger-than-ever when we come through this process."

Yildirim, who spoke before Erdogan, said Turkey would respond to terrorism "with more production and share our developments with our people in our regions in a brotherly way.

"The Osmangazi Bridge will bring life to not only Kocaeli, but also Istanbul, Yalova, Bursa, Balikesir, Manisa and Izmir provinces."

Erdogan and Yildirim have for years championed efforts to expand the country's airport and road facilities in order to achieve better connectivity between provinces.

The bridge lies in the southern shore of the Marmara Sea along the route of the new six-lane Istanbul-Izmir Highway Project, which cost around $6.3 billion.

The 421-kilometer (261.6-mile) long highway will cut the average journey time between Izmir and Istanbul from 10 hours to approximately four hours.

The new bridge and highway will also mean that the drive-time between the country's second busiest Sabiha Gokcen Airport and the eastern province of the Bursa would be less than an hour.

The highway project is built through a public-private partnership and is the first road project in the country to be procured under the Build-Operate-Transfer model.

Meanwhile, Kenan Sofuoglu, a world-renowned Turkish motorcycle racer, broke a racing record on the bridge prior to the inauguration ceremony.

Sofuoglu managed to hit the 400-kilometer (248.5 miles) per hour mark on his sports bike within 30 seconds in a special suit, following three months of preparation.

The professional racer has the most number of World SuperSport championships with four titles.