Costs soar for unfinished highways, railways and airports, creating a heavy burden

The costs of highways, railways and airports that have remained unfinished for years have multiplied over time, according to a comparison by CHP Karabük lawmaker Cevdet Akay.

Akay, who serves as the CHP group spokesperson on the Turkish Parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission, compared the original investment or tender prices for 343 projects with their current costs. He said the difference totaled 1 trillion 823 billion 934 million Turkish lira.

Akay cautioned that the entire amount could not automatically be classified as public loss. But he said the source of the difference, which exceeds 1.8 trillion lira, should be identified for each project.

He also called on the Court of Accounts to carry out a detailed examination of the cost increases in the projects.

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We do not describe the entire amount as public loss. However, the source of this difference exceeding 1.8 trillion lira must be revealed project by project.