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Weekly Lists
April 12, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:
Infrastructure
Istanbul’s Ataturk airport sends off last commercial flight after 66 years of operation
Tajikistan postpones second Rogun hydropower dam unit
Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, opened in 1953, on April 6 waved goodbye to its last commercial passenger flight.
At the same time, convoys of trucks were hauling thousands of tonnes of equipment to the giant Istanbul Airport, around 35 kilometres from the centre of Turkey’s business capital, as part of a 45-hour transfer drawn up to bring the country’s new international airport into full operation.
Istanbul Airport — which has so far cost between $7.2bn and $12bn to build depending on whose figures you choose to believe — will initially be able to handle 90mn passengers a year. Authorities, intent on making it the world’s busiest airport, plan to expand that capacity to 200mn.
Ataturk, on the shores of the Sea of Marmara, is to be turned into a public park.
Tajik authorities have postponed the launch of the second unit of the Rogun hydropower dam “to a date yet to be announced”, an anonymous source in Tajikistan's government informed Asia-Plus, without giving any more details. The second unit was scheduled to be launched this month.
Tajikistan launched the first power plant unit of the flagship hydro- power dam last November 16, a move it had aspired to for nearly half a century. Construction restarted in late October 2016, shortly after the death of Islam Karimov, the long-ruling autocrat of neigh- bouring Uzbekistan who opposed the project, claiming it would reduce water flows to Uzbekistan's cotton fields.
Currently, the total capacity of Tajikistan’s hydropower plants amounts to 5,190 MW, but ageing infrastructure makes only 3,600MW of that capacity usable. The situation causes chronic winter electricity shortages for Central Asia’s poorest nation.
Romania’s government will begin negotiations with a consortium formed by China Communications Construction Company Ltd and Makyol Insaat Sanayi Turizm (Turkey) for the construction and operation of the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway under a public-private partnership (PPP), Profit.ro reported.
The project is estimated by the Romanian authorities as set to cost €1.36bn. On April 4, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced
the government’s intention to start negotiations, but she did not mention the partners.
Romania close to signing PPP contract for Ploiesti-Brasov motorway