Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.15 / Trend, A. Taghiyeva /
The Turkish provinces of Istanbul and Izmir will be linked via a single transport corridor within the country's highway project, the Ministry of Transport, Shipping and Communications of Turkey told Trend on Tuesday.
The Ministry said that the project cost is estimated at 13 billion Lira. Within the project, Istanbul and Gebze in Kocaeli will be linked via a bridge over the Marmara Sea. The bridge, with a length of 4,200 meters will be the third longest in the world.
It is expected that the project will be completed by 2015. The project linking Istanbul and Izmir via the single transport corridor will be implemented by the private sector through tender. In the future, the transport corridor will be managed by the private sector as well, the ministry said.
After the implementation of this project, the distance between Istanbul and Izmir will be reduced from the current 8.3 hours to a mere 3.5 hour journey.