ANKARA
A consortium of eight Turkish Banks and Deutsche Bank AG London have signed a $5 billion loan agreement for Turkey’s largest highway project to date.
The 433 kilometer (269 miles) long Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir motorway project will allow drivers to cover the distance between Istanbul and Izmir in the Aegean province within three and a half hours compared with the current eight hour long trip.
The banks involved in the project are Deutsche Bank, Akbank, Garanti Bankasi, Finansbank, Is Bankasi, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, Yapi Kredi and Vakifbank.
The project is scheduled to end in 2018. It will begin from the Gebze town to the north of Izmit Bay, part of the Sea of Marmara, which is also part of the connecting waterway between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.
Addressing the signing ceremony in Ankara Friday, Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication Minister Feridun Bilgin said: "The loan agreement shows trust in the Turkish banking sector, its entrepreneurs and Turkish economy".
"The highway project is being built through a Public Private Partnership and it is the first road project in Turkey to be procured under the Build Operate Transfer model. This is the largest loan used by Turkish private sector since the country was founded," Bilgin added.
The contract, which includes the Izmit Gulf Crossing suspension bridge, is for 22 years and four months; seven years of construction time is estimated at a cost of around $6 billion.
The project implementation contractor Otoyol, which is a consortium of four Turkish companies, Nurol, Ozaltın, Makyol Gocay, and an Italian construction firm Astaldi were selected in 2009. The project is expected to cost around $7.3 billion.
