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Tender Opens For Istanbul 2020 Third Airport

Should Istanbul host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, visitors to the Games will experience what bid officials call a fully modernized connected city, which will be built with six runways and an annual passenger capacity of 150 million by 2020.

The tender to build the world’s largest airport in Istanbul has been officially opened.

The first phase of construction is due to be completed in three-and-a-half years and is one of five major infrastructure projects taking place in the city as part of Turkey’s 2023 Master Plan.

Hasan Arat, head of Istanbul 2020 said, “the Istanbul 2020 team has continued to learn from our previous four bids; we have listened carefully to the Olympic family and we have extensively studied the successes of London 2020 as other host cities. We recognize that effective and efficient transport is critical for a successful Games – starting with a world class airport”.

Istanbul 2020 is drawing on the $1.5 billion average annual investment in transport infrastructure since 2005 and a further $15 billion to be spent on projects over the next three years, said the bid committee. These projects will significantly reduce congestion and speed up all journey times for Olympic client groups.

Ugur Erdener, IOC member and President of the NOC of Turkey said, “as a President of an NOC and an International Federation, I am focussed on the comfort and convenience of the athletes. I am more than confident that this carefully directed investment in Istanbul’s transport infrastructure will enhance our ability to deliver a technically outstanding Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

“Our proposed four competition zones across two continents have been selected to highlight Istanbul’s unique location, bridging Europe and Asia, as well as to guarantee athletes an average travel time of just 16 minutes between our iconic venues”.

The winning tender for Istanbul’s third airport will be named in May.

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