Suit filed to cancel Galataport tender

A suit for the cancellation of the Galataport tender has been filed by the National Port and Land Stevedores Union of Turkey (Liman-Is). The petition, which was sent to the Council of State on Monday, questioned why the operational rights of Galataport had been transferred for 149 years, although in the original tender notice and specification it had only been envisaged for 49 years. Liman-Is Union lawyers Metin Bayyar and Sait Kiran said that the tender on "Construction, Management and Transfer of Istanbul Salipazari-Karakoy Kruvaziyer Port Tourism Trade Complex" with a build-operate-transfer model had been completed on August 24, 2005. The petition also stated that the announcement and specifications of the tender indicated that this was a "build-operate-transfer" project. "However the project only included tourism investments at present." A consortium led by Israeli shipping magnate Sami Ofer's Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Turkey's Global Investment Holding offered more than $4.3 billion to get the operation right of a major Istanbul seaport (Galataport) for 49 years.Â