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The Turkish government has placed Istanbul’s two iconic bridges, 15 July Martyrs Bridge and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, in a 30-year privatization program alongside 8 highways and 2 ring roads spanning more than 2,000 kilometers.
According to a presidential decree published Saturday, the program includes related maintenance, operating and service facilities, with ownership remaining with the state and the process set to be completed by Dec. 31, 2031.
The package encompasses the Edirne-Istanbul-Ankara Motorway, which links the European border with Istanbul and Ankara, as well as the Nigde-Pozanti, Pozanti-Tarsus-Mersin and Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep routes connecting central Anatolia, the Mediterranean and the southeast.
It also features the Toprakkale-Iskenderun, Gaziantep-Sanliurfa, Izmir-Cesme and Izmir-Aydin motorways, along with the Ankara, Izmir and Gaziantep ring roads and part of the Bursa Ring Road.
In a statement addressing claims circulating on social media, the Privatization Administration under the Finance Ministry said the model does not involve selling public assets, with ownership remaining with the state while operating rights are transferred for a specified period.
"Priority is not to generate revenue but to improve service quality, speed up maintenance and investments and increase operating efficiency," the administration said, rejecting claims that the highways generate $600 million in annual profit and $18 billion over 30 years.
It noted that the $600 million figure is revenue, with about $300 million going toward maintenance and repair, alongside other costs.
The administration also said there is no decision to turn free highways into toll roads, raise toll fees or affect workers’ existing rights, adding that the presidential decision does not launch a privatization tender but authorizes the administration to carry out the necessary procedures.
The 15 July Martyrs Bridge, Istanbul’s first Bosphorus crossing, opened in 1973, followed by the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge as the city’s second crossing.
The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, part of the Trans-European Motorway network and a key freight link between Europe and Asia, carried an average of 239,217 vehicles a day in 2025, data compiled from Türkiye’s General Directorate of Highways shows.
The 15 July Martyrs Bridge, which mainly serves urban traffic between the two sides of Istanbul, handled about 185,301 daily crossings during the same period. Together with other state-owned toll highways, the network recorded 585.9 million vehicle crossings in 2025 and generated nearly ₺1.9 billion ($43.2 million) in Treasury revenue.
Bloomberg reported in July that the government was preparing a privatization tender for the bridges, with French infrastructure investor Meridiam among potential bidders alongside Turkish contractor Makyol.
Euronews later reported that feasibility work could be completed by the end of August, while sources said no decision had been made on the tender, valuation, scope or package.
Türkiye last sought to privatize the Bosphorus bridges and 1,975 kilometers of highways in 2012, when a consortium of Koc Holding, Malaysia’s UEM Group and Gozde Girisim, the investment arm of Turkish food conglomerate Ulker, won the tender with a $5.7 billion bid.
The government later scrapped the deal after deciding it would not accept offers below $7 billion.
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