Turkiye government promotes private sale of 30-year operation rights to two major bridges in Istanbul

The Turkic government has decided to privatize the operation of two major bridges in Istanbul, the largest city.

According to the pro-government daily Sabah on the 9th (local time), according to a recent presidential decree published in the Official Gazette, the 30-year operating rights of two bridges and some highways across the Bosphorus Strait, including the July 15 Martyrs Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, will be sold to the private sector.

All maintenance, operation, and services of the facility will be transferred to a private operator, but ownership will remain with the government. The Turkiye government plans to complete the process of selling operating rights by the end of 2031.

Sabakh explained that this is something the Turkiye government is pursuing to ease budget pressure.

Türkye attempted to sell the right to operate the bridge over the Bosphorus Strait to the private sector in 2012, but decided that the winning bid of $5.72 billion presented by a consortium including Coach Holding was too low, so he canceled the project the following year.

Zumhuryet, a secular media outlet that supports the opposition, evaluated this decision by saying, “The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which has pushed for about 90% of the privatizations in the entire history of Turkiye since coming to power in 2002, has now begun formal procedures for privatization of bridges and highways.”

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Türkiye, infrastructure-related state-owned enterprises, such as telecommunications company Turk Telecom and petrochemical company Typrash, were sold to domestic and foreign capital, and the privatization of the domestic power grid was also accelerated.

Deniz Yavuzılmaz, a member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said, "Privatizing bridges, highways and ring roads that were built with taxpayer money and generate huge profits is an act of betraying the people and selling out the future of Turkiye," and said, "This decision must be withdrawn immediately."