The CEO of Limak Holding, Nihat Özdemir, announced that 80 percent of the Ankara High Speed Rail Station (YHT) has been completed, costing a total of $235 million. Speaking at the introduction meeting of Ankara YHT, Özdemir said that the station will function not just as a railway but also as a shopping center, accommodation hall, meeting center and a gathering place in the middle of town for all the locals. The station's construction is through a build-operate-transfer model after the Cengiz-Kolin-Limak consortium won the contract for the Ankara YHT Station in 2013, offering a total operation term of 19 years and seven months.
It is estimated that the station will be visited by approximately 100,000 people on daily basis and will include a hotel with 140 rooms, 185 shopping units and an indoor parking lot for 2,500 vehicles.
Özdemir said that there are currently high speed train services running between Ankara, Eskişehir, Konya and Istanbul and that in 2016, high speed tracks from Bursa, İzmir and Sivas will be added. In the coming years, high-speed rail will also be connected to other cities including Antalya, Adana, Erzincan and Kars, according to the schedule. He also said that they are currently working on renting out vacant office spaces for shops, restaurants and more.
Responding to questions from the press after the meeting, Özdemir said that Limak Holding has currently invested more than 1 billion euros in the third Istanbul airport project - a mega project undertaken by the Cengiz-Kolin-Limak consortium - a number considerably lower than what they expected. One of the metro stations in Ankara will also have a connection to the Ankara YHT Station. Özdemir said that they are expecting the station to be visited by 3 million passengers within the first month and around 35 million to 36 million per year.
