Turkish firm to make country's first metro car export

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Bozankaya, a leading public transport vehicle builder in Turkey, is set to make the country's first-ever metro car export, the company said Tuesday.

Bozankaya will provide 22 sets of four-car trains for Bangkok's metro line for $46.1 million, the largest export Turkey has ever made to the Southeast Asian country.

"Today, we put our signature on Turkey’s first metro exports and we are glad to contribute directly to the exports of Turkey," Murat Bozankaya, the head of the Bozankaya Group, told a ceremony in the capital Ankara, marking the first train set that rolled out of the assembly line.

The first of the 140-ton metro trains will leave the factory at the end of June, and it will travel over 15,000 kilometers in six weeks to reach the Laem Chabang Port in eastern Thailand.

After the tests are completed, the new trains will be included in the Bangkok's Skytrain fleet, which serves more than a million passengers a day.

Siemens Mobility-Bozankaya consortium won a tender in 2016 to improve Bangkok's public transport.

In May 2016, Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company (BTSC) placed an order to the Siemens Mobility-Bozankaya consortium for 22 four-unit metro trains, including 16 years of service and maintenance by Siemens.

The trains can carry up to 1,572 passengers. The delivery of the entire 22 sets will be completed in 2019.

Bozankaya, founded in 1989 in Germany, is also known for producing Turkey's first indigenous fully electric bus.