Daily Sabah – Turkey is set to mobilize its investments in railway infrastructure, and new lines have been included on the country’s agenda, including those that will directly connect industrial production zones to commercial ports, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said Thursday.
He said that they are planning their railway networks according to feasibility studies and that the country will be a logistics superpower when setting up the infrastructure with the new investments.
Karaismailoğlu was speaking to Anadolu Agency’s (AA) Editorial Desk about the country’s current railway infrastructure, plans and new investments.
He said that the country has achieved a lot in the last 18 years in the field of transportation.
“We have increased the length of divided roads from 6,000 kilometers to up to 28,000 kilometers,” Karaismailoğlu said, adding that in 2002, there were only 50 kilometers (31 miles) of tunnels in Turkey. “We currently have a 600-kilometer tunnel and a 200-kilometer tunnel network under construction,” he said.
“Our road network has now reached a certain level,” Karaismailoğlu said, adding that thus it is time to focus on the railways.
Karaismailoğlu said that Turkey had nearly 9,000 kilometers of railway in the 1930s however, from the 1940s to 2002, there was no real investment in railway infrastructure. He said that this changed under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the country has been accelerating its efforts to increase railway capacity in recent years.
Commenting on the modernized Samsun-Sivas line, which just recently opened with a ceremony attended by Erdoğan, Karaismailoğlu said the line connects the Black Sea to the central Anatolian region and then to the Mediterranean. The 431-kilometer railway line which is now operating at increased capacity will also contribute to the trade corridor from Northern Europe to the Middle East.
Turkey is located on a corridor that reaches from Beijing to London, Karaismailoğlu said.
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