Turkey sees around 50 percent hike in Bosphorus bridge toll in New Year

The rise in cost of bridge tolls over Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait is set to lighten Turks' wallets in the New Year, with the government imposing price hikes from Jan. 1.

The government increased tolls for the first two bridges over the Bosphorus Strait by 47 percent, while it made an average 20 percent hike in highway crossing tolls. 

The toll for the Osmangazi Bridge over the İzmit Bay was decreased by 26 percent by the General Directorate of Highways (KGM). 

"In line with the Build-Operate-Transfer contracts, some revisions were made in highway and bridge crossing tolls. While the highway tolls were increased by an average of 20 percent, the crossing toll for the Osmangazi Bridge was decreased by 26 percent to 65.65 Turkish Liras ($18.5) for cars," said the KGM in a statement on Dec. 31. 

The tolls for the first and second bridges over the Bosphorus Strait were increased from 4.75 liras ($1.35) to 7 liras ($2). 

Turkey's highway directorate stated on Dec. 27 that the country earned over 1.11 billion liras ($318.2 million) from tolls collected on two bridges over Istanbul's Bosphorus and linking roads in the first 11 months of 2016.

The July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, previously known as the Bosphorus Bridge, and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, both of which are over the Bosphorus connecting Europe to Asia, yielded around 268.3 million liras ($76.65 million), while the highways earned 845.35 million liras ($241.5 million), according to data released by the authority.