Eight housing construction tenders worth 6 billion liras held in three days in quake zone

Duvar English

The Turkish Housing Development Administration, TOKİ, has held in the last three days eight tenders for the construction of 3,770 residential buildings in the earthquake-hit provinces, journalist Çiğdem Toker from online news outlet T24 reported on Feb. 24. The construction of these buildings will cost the government six billion liras, she wrote. 

In her column, journalist Toker wrote that the tenders took place through the sealed bid method and in a very fast way. She said that such a tendering process created problems with regards to the inspection mechanism.  

Toker's column came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this week announced that 200,000 buildings would be erected in one year in the quake-affected provinces.

“In the last three days, TOKİ has held eight tenders in Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Adana and Kilis. The cost of these tenders, i.e. the fundings that will be provided by the state, is approximately 6 billion liras, with the current prices. For the tenders held for the said cities, the number of residential buildings is approximately 3,770,” she wrote, listing the number of firms that won the tender along with the cities.

She signalled that the number of actual tenders might be more as these are the ones that she could have found. “When you make a rough calculation based on the approximately 6 billion lira cost, one residential building’s cost to the state, including environmental planning and infrastructure, is approximately 1.5 million liras. And the planned 200,000 residential buildings – and just before the elections – will give us an idea as to what kind of a massive funding is set into motion. We will discuss where it (the funding) sources from in the future,” she wrote.