More efforts planned to rehabilitate Kurbağalıdere creek

A new tender has been held to select a company to carry out additional work to rehabilitate Kurbağalıdere, one of the central creeks in Istanbul's Kadıköy district on the Asian side.

Some 250 million Turkish Liras (around $39 million) have been spent over the past eight years to clean the highly polluted creek.

The company, which won the tender, is expected to complete new rehabilitation work, which will cost another 65 million liras, by the end of August this year.

Four firms competed in the tender, which was held by İSTON, one of the companies of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Over the past eight years a total of eight tenders have been held to commission the rehabilitation work for Kurbağalıdıere, which was once famous for the mansions, picnic areas, and boathouses scattered along the creek.

Kurbağalıdere, which is located near the Asian side's upbeat neighborhoods, such as Moda, Kalamış, Bahariye and Fenerbahçe, used to attract a large population.

These days, efforts are concentrated on rehabilitating a 1 to 1.5-kilometer-long section of the creek.

Industrialization and ill-planned urbanization turned Kurbağalıdere into a creek, which emits a foul smell, causing a great deal of disturbance to people who live around it.

Turkey,