Turkish firm to join Syrian project

A Turkish construction company, in collaboration with Souria Holding, one of Syria’s leading holding companies, will construct the “Aleppo Gate project,” that will include a shopping mall, a hotel and a bus terminal.

The Aleppo Gate Project will provide the city with a premier retail space and a range of hospitality facilities conveniently located near an efficient and modern transport hub.

The development will be built on 300,000 square meters of land provided by the Aleppo municipality, Ahmet Yalamanoğlu, chairman of the Büyük Istanbul Otogar İşletmeleri, or BIOIAŞ, said at a signing ceremony held at the Ceylan Intercontinental in Istanbul on Thursday. The project will be constructed on a build-operate-transfer model.

The project, which is expected to cost about $40 million, should be concluded within three years. The bus terminal will have a priority in the construction stage. The land and the complex have been leased for 35 years, said Yalamanoğlu. BIOIAŞ will operate the complex on behalf of Souria Holding, he said.

There are a few small bus terminals in various sections of the city, he said, adding that this new bus terminal will gather all those small depots in a single complex.

This will be the first bus terminal constructed and operated abroad by BIOIAŞ, according to Yalamanoğlu. Including the one in Istanbul’s Esenler district, BIOIAŞ operates five bus terminals in Turkey.