By Ayse Bocuoglu Bodur and Mustafa Calkaya
The Development Road Project, which aims to connect Asia with Europe, will realize a total investment plan of $19.9 billion by the time the planned railway and road projects are completed, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Anadolu.
Uraloglu stated that international cooperation negotiations are still ongoing and Türkiye and Iraq are working on the follow-up of the project.
“There will be 2,094 kilometers (1,301 miles) of railway connections from Türkiye, and for this, we will build 1,655 kilometers (1,028 miles) of railways in addition to the 439-kilometer (272-mile) line that already exists, and an investment of $17.9 billion will be realized by then,” the minister said.
Uraloglu highlighted that the construction of 928 kilometers (576 miles) of railways is still ongoing with an allocated budget of $7.1 billion, and plans are underway to build 727 kilometers (451 miles) of additional railways, starting from the southeastern Sirnak province’s Ovakoy village, and 501 kilometers (311 miles) between Nusaybin district on the Syrian border in Mardin province, and the provinces of Sanliurfa and Gaziantep.
“Some 106 kilometers of railways (65 miles) will be built for the Yenice-Ulukisla section and 120 kilometers (74 miles) for Gebze and Catalca, with a projected amount of $10.8 billion,” said Uraloglu.
As for highway investments, the minister stated that a total of 331 kilometers (205 miles) of highway will be built, including the 23 kilometers (14 miles) for the Ovakoy-Cizre road and 308 kilometers (191 miles) from Cizre to Sanliurfa, with a total of $2 billion allocated from the investments.
“The Development Road Project will play a key role in increasing regional cooperation and it is important for regional and global supply chains,” the minister noted.
This project stands out as the shortest and the most practical project connecting the Persian Gulf to Europe, he added.
Uraloglu mentioned that the transportation projects are estimated to result in 7.5 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) cargo to be transported annually in the region.
*Writing by Emir Yildirim