WTC recovery cost could near $40bn

The price tag of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre will be nearly $40bn (£26.6bn), an early estimate of what it will cost to remove debris, pay overtime and rebuild subways and skyscrapers, officials say.

Cleaning up the estimated 1.2 million tons of rubble will cost 47bn and take up to a year, officials said today, providing rough cost estimates of the destruction left when hijacked airliners obliterated the buildings.