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news agency DHA on October 26 that they desired to make their 8,000 drivers, including 2,000 legal taxis, useful to Istanbul Airport passengers.
The parking lot at the airport will be free of charge until the end of this year, according to IGA.
Payments to Bulgaria
Turkey’s transport ministry, meanwhile denied on August 30 claims regarding payments to be made by the Turkish Treasury to Bulgaria for planes using Bulgarian air space while landing at, and taking off from, Istanbul Airport.
The feasibility of Erdogan’s “largest” airport project is another concern. The cost of the first phase is controversial. Some media outlets claim as much as $12bn was invested but official state news service Anadolu Agency reported it cost only $7.2bn.
Ataturk Airport will become idle and the future of Istanbul’s third airport, Sabiha Gokcen, located on the Anatolian side of Istanbul is also not certain.
The construction contract for Istanbul Airport went to a consortium of Cengiz- Mapa-Limak-Kolin-Kalyon consortium, known as IGA. It bid €22.2bn for the rights to construct and operate the facility for 25 years.
Limak, Cengiz, Kolin and Kalyon were among the top 10 global private participants in infrastructure projects between 1990 and the end of the first half of 2018, according to the World Bank.
Corruption allegations made by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) do not carry any news value under the current conditions in Turkey because “dog bites man” is not news. But we may have some news in the future
if it can be proved that a government project has not been tainted by any claims of graft.
Insolvency protection
In April, Turkey’s transportation minister caused consternation by indicating that the airport builders required protection from insolvency. The consortium subse-
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quently went into talks for another one billion euros in loans which it reportedly obtained by late May from a consortium of local public and private lenders.
On October 25, Kadri Samsunlu, CEO
of IGA, said revisions were made to the annual €1bn airport fee agreement with the government, but he did not disclose further details. According to Bloomberg, he also said that IGA would consider any loan refinancing offers for the $5bn loan it took out from local lenders to build the first phase of the airport.
Environmental costs associated with the airport, which the Donald Trumps of this world shrug aside as not mattering, are in fact a serious concern. Environmental group Northern Forests Defence back in 2015 published a detailed environmen- tal damage report entitled “The Third Airport Project”.
Combined with the Third Bosphorus Bridge – wait for it! It’s the world’s second “tallest”, one of the “widest” – and the Canal Istanbul – gadzooks! Even submarines will be able to pass through this waterway splitting Istanbul to link the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. The Ottomans gave up on previous
an "airport city" for innovation and technology is also to be built, according to The Associated Press.
According to IGA, Istanbul Airport is truly an award and certificate winner when it comes to sustainability. It is
even possible to watch videos on the company’s official web pages showing how officials from the Environmental and Sustainability Directorate Wildlife Management Programme are taking care of wildlife found around the airport.
Wittering website
“Istanbul New Airport, bringing in robots, artificial intelligence, face recognition and similar features
to reach personal information,
has been equipped with cutting-
edge technological systems such as smart system, beacon, wireless internet, wireless and new generation GSM infrastructure, LTE, sensor and talking objects,” the website witters on.
And now, buried in this lengthy article – and that is said with no small bitter irony – a recap on the number of workers that have perished in the creation of this lat- est mega-infrastructure craving, with all its state-of-art technologies, and inflated
“The cost of the first phase is controversial. Some media outlets claim as much as $12bn was invested”
propositions for such an endeavour more than 500 years ago – the airport
is fuelling a new construction saga
of multiple highways as well as new lucrative residential and office projects that will destroy the remaining northern forests of Istanbul.
“We committed treason against
this city [Istanbul], we are still committing it, I am also responsible for this,” remarked Erdogan in October 2017, apparently calling for developments historically sensitive to surroundings.
Istanbul Airport general manager Kadir Samsunlu said on October 28 that
jargon, fated never to be understood by all but an overweening few. At least 38 souls have been lost in “preventable” work-related accidents and many more have been badly injured, Nihat Demir, the head of the construction workers’ union Dev Yapi-Is, told Human Rights Watch (HRW) on September 21. The transport minister argues the real figure is 30. Suffice to say neither 38 nor 30 names were read out at the biggity air- port opening ceremony. Not that those workers still standing did not receive fulsome thanks and praise.
Workers’ unions actually claim the death toll might even be a good deal higher since unregistered workers are