South Korean company Dong Sang Engineering has completed the feasibility study for a 14km highway bridge to be built over Baku bay in Azerbaijan, estimated to cost $1.5bn-$1.8bn.

Sadraddin Mammadov, head of the Transport Policy and Economy Department of the Azerbaijan Transport Ministry, said the feasibility study is ready and will be submitted to the ministry by the end of the year.

"The Azerbaijani Government will not invest its own funds to the project. An international consortium composed of projectors and constructors will be created within the project will invest [the] funds", Mammadov said.

The consortium will be formed in six months, development of detailed project will take another two to three years, while construction will start in the next three years.

The project will be carried out on a build-operate-transfer basis and is expected to be complet within the next six and a half years.

There will be a cable supported bridge and after completion it is expected to divert more than 50% of traffic from the congested Neftchilar Avenue along the Baku seafront.

The bridge will also give a boost to tourism as well as allow leisure facilities to be built on islands in the bay.

On 12 March 2010, Azerbaijan signed an agreement with Dong Sang Engineering for the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) grant to prepare the feasibility study for preparation and preliminary design.

Under the study, the company was expected to define transport and economic efficiency of the project. The bridge will also allow ships of 40,000dw tonnes to pass under it.