Turkey is preparing to strengthen its position in global trade with the huge transportation projects it has implemented and planned. While the tender processes for the Gebze-Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge-Istanbul Airport-Çatalca Railway Project and the improvement of the existing railway line between Divriği-Kars have been initiated, the Development Path Corridor, which was developed as an alternative to the Middle Corridor, is also progressing at great speed. These strategic moves stand out as concrete steps towards the goal of making Türkiye an important center of international logistics networks.
New Railway Line to the Bosphorus and Improvement of Existing Lines
TCDD General Manager Veysi Kurt stated that Türkiye has made a huge investment of 22 billion dollars in the transportation sector in the last 280 years and 62.8 billion dollars of this investment was allocated to railways. Reminding that the Asian and European continents were connected by railway under the Bosphorus with Marmaray, Kurt gave the good news of the 120-kilometer Gebze-Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge-Istanbul Airport-Çatalca Railway Project, which will provide a different railway crossing from the Bosphorus. In addition to this project, he announced that the project and tender processes are ongoing in order to increase the infrastructure standards of the existing railway line between Divriği-Kars.
We are in the Top 6 in Europe in High Speed Train Network
Emphasizing that Türkiye has made significant progress in high-speed train investments, Veysi Kurt proudly stated that thanks to the 2-kilometer high-speed railway network that was constructed, Türkiye has become the 251th high-speed train operator in the world and the 8th in Europe. Stating that work continues uninterruptedly in line with the targets of the Transportation and Logistics Master Plan, Kurt noted that construction is currently ongoing on a total of 6 kilometers of new railway lines, 3 kilometers of which are high-speed trains and 830 kilometers of which are conventional lines. He also added that survey and project work is ongoing on a 186-kilometer railway line in order to create new transportation corridors on the east-west and north-south axes.
Transportation Disruptions in Earthquake Zone Are Being Resolved
The General Manager of TCDD, who stated that intensive efforts were made to repair the damages in the transportation infrastructure in the region following the February 6 earthquakes, announced that 19.2 billion liras had been spent for this purpose to date. He announced that the works carried out to reopen the Malatya Narlı-Nurdağı section, which was severely damaged by the earthquake, were in the final stages and that the line was planned to be activated in approximately 1 month. He also emphasized that investments made in suburban lines, which also play an important role in urban transportation, contributed to the solution of traffic problems in metropolitan cities.
New Trade Bridges Are Being Built with the Development Road Corridor
In order to further strengthen Türkiye’s strategic position, the Development Path Corridor project, which was implemented in the China-Basra-Turkey-Europe destination starting from Faw Port in the Persian Gulf in addition to the Middle Corridor, is progressing at great speed within the framework of cooperation with regional countries. Of this important corridor, which has a total length of 6 kilometers, 314 kilometers pass through the Iraqi borders and 1200 kilometers pass through Turkey. In addition to the 2 kilometers of ongoing projects on this corridor, the project work and the process of including the new railway line, which is 100 kilometers in total, on the Gaziantep-Şanlıurfa-Mardin-Nusaybin-Ovaköy route in the investment program are ongoing. While the projects of the Nusaybin-Cizre-Ovaköy (928 km) and Gaziantep-Şanlıurfa (501 km) sections of the project have been completed, the project work of the Şanlıurfa-Mardin (127 km) and Mardin-Nusaybin (136 km) sections is ongoing. These massive transportation projects have the potential to solidify Türkiye's role in global trade and turn the country into an important logistics base.
