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Weekly Lists
December 14, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
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Infrastructure
Infrastructure freeze be damned! Turkey to build $16bn Canal Istanbul
Bulgaria allocates €690mn for Hemus motorway stretch construction
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 6 vowed to go ahead with the $16bn, 45 km long Canal Istanbul project connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. His declaration came despite earlier pledges that amid Turkey’s economic difficulties the govern- ment would rein in state infrastructure investments for the sake of austerity and fiscal prudence.
“A tender for the construction of Canal Istanbul, which has long been delayed, will be held in 2019,” Erdogan said in a speech deliv- ered in Ankara.
Back in September, Erdogan himself declared that his administra- tion’s ministries were reviewing their plans, including expenditure levels, for infrastructure. The government, he said, was not consid- ering any fresh investments.
Bulgaria’s government has decided to allocate BGN1.35bn (€690mn) for the construction of a 134.2 km stretch of the Hemus motorway that links the capital city Sofia to the Black Sea port of Varna.
Bulgaria had built just 170 km of the 420 km motorway before joining the EU. After that, several tenders for different stretches were cancelled either by the government or by courts following objections from candidates.
The new funds will come from the surplus of Bulgaria’s budget for 2018. According to latest finance ministry data, the surplus stood at BGN2.84bn through October.
Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed to boost cross-border facilitation of railway transit, Islamic Republic News Agency has reported.
Remote Turkmenistan provides an in-between route for Iranian goods heading north to countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and China and for exports sent by these countries to Iran.
The Turkmen, meanwhile, are reportedly hoping to use some of Iran’s railway rolling stock to export sulphur abroad.
Iran and Turkmenistan agree to boost rail transit for trade flows