photo. (Photo: Cihan)
Three of the firms subcontracted to build Istanbul‘s third Bosporus bridge have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to news reports on Monday.
ESA İnşaat, Saryapı İnşaat and İSDEM Yapı were hit hard by the recent surge in the value of the dollar against the lira and subsequently applied to local İstanbul courts to avoid bankruptcy. report Zaman
ESA İnşaat, which was contracted to perform excavation and tunnel work, employed nearly 1,000 workers for the construction of the bridge. İSDEM Yapı, which brought in TL 37 million in revenue from the bridge last year, is involved in constructing highways in conjunction with the bridge, while Saryapı İnşaat is building a 10-kilometer-long road within the scope of the project. Saryapı earned TL 100 million in revenue from the project last year.
The bridge project has been fraught with controversy since its inception as environmentalists argue it will be devastating to the forestland in the northern end of the city and will exacerbate — rather than relieve — the city’s severe traffic problem. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a major supporter of the project, previously claimed during his tenure as İstanbul mayor in the 1990s that a third bridge would be disastrous for the city.