The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has revealed the prices of the eight consortia who submitted bids at the end of March to build the 2.5- kilometre Taksim-Unkapani section of the second stage of the city's metro project. The contract involves the construction of a bridge over the Golden Horn (MEED 24:5:98).

A low bid of $79.3 million was submitted by a consortium of the local Yuksel, Guris, Basyacizoglu and Reha. The second lowest offer of $81 million was submitted by the local Sezai Turkes-Feyzi Akkaya with Alke. Both consortia offered to reduce their bids if the entire contract price is paid by the government. However, about half of the project's cost is likely to come from foreign credits.

Other bidders include the local Gama with the Czech Republic's Vitkovice and Italy's Trevi and a consortium of the local Baytur, Cengiz and Kiska and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation.