The Era of Digitalization on Highways Begins

Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu made the opening speech of the 71st Highways Regional Managers Meeting, which was attended by former Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Cahit Turhan, Deputy Minister Enver İskurt and General Director of Highways Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.

Speaking at the 71st Highways Regional Managers Meeting, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu said, "62 percent of the budget has been transferred to our highways, our investment has exceeded 670 billion liras."

Minister Karaismailoğlu stated that highways have always had an important share in the investments made within the scope of the transportation and communication move since 2003, and said, “1% of this budget has been transferred to our highways, so far we have invested in the construction and improvement projects of our highways. It has exceeded 86 billion liras. These expenditures made between 62 and 670 have already contributed 2003 billion dollars to the Gross Domestic Product and 2020 billion dollars to production. On the other hand, with the effect of these investments, an annual average employment of 395 million 837,7 thousand people has arisen ”.

Stating that they have made significant progress in the road infrastructure development campaign initiated within the scope of the Emergency Action Plan in 2003 to strengthen the power of the highway network, Minister Karaismailoğlu noted that 19 years ago, they increased the existing 6-kilometer divided road network by 101 times and increased it to 3,6 kilometers. . Karaismailoğlu said, “We aim to increase the length of our divided road to 28 kilometers in 204. While only 2023 of our provinces were connected through divided roads in 29, today exactly 514 of our provinces have achieved this opportunity. We added 2003 kilometers to our highway length, which was 6 kilometers in 77, and reached 2003 kilometers. "Before 714, an average of 809 thousand kilometers of asphalt was made annually, now we are doing over 3 thousand kilometers of asphalt work a year."

"79 percent reduction in the number of people who lost their lives in accidents"

Reminding that they announced the "Road Traffic Safety Action Plan" together with the "Traffic Safety Strategy Document" between 2021-2023 on Highways, Minister Karaismailoğlu said:

“Thanks to the safe and flawless roads we have built, the news of fatal traffic accidents that have not been interrupted for years and that have plagued the whole country have been scarcely anymore. While the number of vehicles on our highways has increased by 13 percent in the last 80 years, 100 million vehicles × km. deaths per accident decreased from 5.72 to 1.21, a 79 percent reduction in the number of deaths in accidents. While the world average of loss of life in traffic accidents per hundred thousand people is 18, this figure has decreased to 2019 by the end of 6,6 in our country.

Reminding that they put the entire Istanbul-Izmir Highway into service in 2019 and provided the connection between Edirne-Istanbul-Ankara Highway and Izmir-Aydın and Izmir-Çeşme highways, Minister Karaismailoğlu said, “Thanks to our Ankara-Niğde highway, we established the highway facility. We have completed the Northern Marmara Motorway and opened it to traffic. By completing the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and the Malkara-Çanakkale Highway on 18 March 2022, we will realize another century-old dream of our nation. Turkey's most important tourism and textile region of Aydın and Denizli provinces of İzmir Port to the Marmara region and in the same way that our big project that will connect the Mediterranean we continue to Aydin-Denizli Motorway construction works "gave expression to the place.

"We are starting the era of digitalization on our highways."

Stating that they have implemented a system that will centrally manage, control and monitor all highways throughout the country in terms of mobility, efficiency and security by using technological opportunities, Minister Karaismailoğlu said, “We have completed the fiber optic communication infrastructure on the route of thousand 29 kilometers. We opened the Ankara-Niğde Highway, the smartest highway in our country, to traffic in 2020. "The 1,3 million-meter fiber communication network, sensors, cameras, data and control centers serve our drivers on our highway, which is supported by domestic and national transportation system infrastructures."

Karaismailoğlu said, “In the developing world, it is very important that all transportation modes work in an integrated way in order to make trade in the fastest way and to shorten the distances. For this reason, we evaluate all our transportation systems on the basis of 'integrated mode'. In line with this goal, we have made great investments in all other modes of transportation and communication in our country, along with highways. We put into service giant projects such as Marmaray, Eurasia Tunnel, Yavuz Sultan Selim and Osmangazi Bridges, and Istanbul Airport. We will open the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in a year, ”he said.