Twelve ventures have been shortlisted to bid for the contract to build a $120 million Olympic stadium planned in Istanbul to support the city's bid for the 2004 Olympic Games. The client is the Istanbul 2004 Olympic Bidding Committee and the bid closing date is 16 July (MEED 25:10:96).

The 12 ventures of foreign firms with local partners due to receive tender documents on 16 January are:

the UK's John Laing International with Gunal

France's Dumez-GTM with Enka

Canada's Ellis-Don with Ceylan

the US' Morse Diesel International and the UK's HOK International with Gulermak Agir Endustri

the US' ICF Kaiser, Clark Construction International, Parsons Brinkerhoff and NBBJ Sports & Entertainment Partnership, Germany's Wayss & Freytag, and locals Kiska and Yapi Merkezi

France's Bouygues with Baytur and ATA

Spain's Ferrovial Internacionale and Agroman Empesa Constructor, Bahrain- registered Dar al-Handasah Consultants, with Alsim Alarko

the US' Huber Hunt & Nichols, with Mak-yol and Sezai Turkes-Feyzi Akkaya

Germany's Hochtief and the Netherlands' Ballast Nedam with Garanti Koza

Russia's Ellerbe Beckett International with Tekser

France's Campenon Bernard and SAE with Tekfen

Germany's Philipp Holzmann with Gama.

With seating for about 80,000 people, the stadium is planned for athletics, football and other field sports, and will comply with Olympic and other international standards. It will be the centrepiece of 14 separate sporting facilities at an Olympic Park planned at Ikitelli near Ataturk International Airport.

The stadium will go ahead even if Istanbul is unsuccessful in its bid to hold the games when the Olympic authorities reach a decision on rival bids in September. The government is required to provide 80 per cent of the financing required for works at the park according to the Turkish Olympic Act, but financing offers from bidders for the stadium will be taken into consideration.