Turkey plans major infrastructure improvements

Turkey recently unveiled ambitious targets towards improving its transportation infrastructure for 2023, the year the country will celebrate its 100th year anniversary as Republic of Turkey. The main means of transportation in Turkey is by highways, and the coach and bus industry has played a crucial role in passenger transportation. The recent increases in the number of airports and charter companies have made travel by plane a potential choice for passengers. However, railways have contributed rather insi
May 3, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Turkey recently unveiled ambitious targets towards improving its transportation infrastructure for 2023, the year the country will celebrate its 100th year anniversary as Republic of Turkey.

The main means of transportation in Turkey is by highways, and the coach and bus industry has played a crucial role in passenger transportation.

The recent increases in the number of airports and charter companies have made travel by plane a potential choice for passengers. However, railways have contributed rather insignificantly to passenger and freight transportation due to the insufficient and inefficient infrastructure in place.

This, in turn, also affects the efficiency of import/export to/from the country, which is emphasised as one of the biggest threats to the country’s growing economy.
This was discussed at the recent Turkey Transport Infrastructure 2011 held in Istanbul.

Additionally, through such high targets together with the newly announced/launched railway, highway, metro, tunnel projects, Turkey aims to improve the living standard in the cities by decreasing the level of intra-city congestion.

Turkey Transportation Infrastructure 2011 covered key topics surrounding the railway and highway infrastructure in Turkey including grand transportation projects such as 7Hill/7Tunnel for Istanbul; high-speed train construction between Istanbul-Konya-Ankara, and the 3rd Bosphorus Bridge.

The finance resources for such projects were discussed, while the importance of transportation infrastructure for freight transportation was emphasised.

Technical discussions covered various analysis carried out during both national and international projects, and transportation projects initiated by various metropolitan municipalities were presented to showcase successful ongoing/completed projects, and future collaboration with private sector and universities.

FACTS                                                                        2023 TARGETS
 Total vehicle (2001/2009)   7,342,888 / 12,914,564*  
 Total Road network  64865km** 5436km (to be constructed)**
 Total Motorway      2080**  
 5436km (to be constructed)**
 Total Conventional Railway
 11052km***  4707km (to be constructed)****
 Total Electrified railway 2273km***  8717km (to be constructed****
  Total High Speed railway  888km***  6792km (to be constructed)****
  Freight Transportation (road)  95%*  
  Freight Transportation (rail)  3.5%*  20%**** 
  Passenger  Transportation(road)  
 95% highway*  
  Passenger Transportation(rail)     3% highway*  15%****







*TURKSTAT Road Motor Vehicle Statistics ** General Directorate of State Highways (01/2011)  *** General Directorate of Railways (12/2010) ****10th Turkey Transportation Summit (05/2011)

Related Content

  • Two new tunnel links for Turkey
    August 28, 2013
    Two new tunnel connections in Turkey will improve transport in key areas. The new Kemerhisar-Pozanti Highway features tunnels along its length and this key route will improve connections between the country’s capital Ankara and its commercial centre Istanbul as well as to the south-east of the country. The highway will have wider benefits too as it will allow better transportation through Turkey between Europe and the Middle East. And in the busy port city of Izmir, the new Konak Tunnel will reduce jour
    Read More
  • Major Europe-Asia bridge connection in Turkey
    July 1, 2014
    The 3rd Bosporus Bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway will improve transport links between Europe and Asia and cut chronic congestion in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city - Mike Woof reports Work is now well underway on the 3rd Bosporus Bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway, providing a new link for Turkish city Istanbul and the region as a whole. This enormous bridge and highway project is breaking several records for Turkey in terms of scale, as well as setting a number of international records for e
    Read More
  • A new tunnel project for Turkey is a significant move
    December 12, 2012
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supplying a finance package worth US$150 million for the new Bosphorus crossing project in Turkey. Running under the Bosphorus at Istanbul, the new tunnel will connect both European and Asian sides of the city. The EBRD’s $150 million loan completes $1.4 billion worth of financing required for the Eurasia Tunnel project, being built under the Bosphorus straits. Other components of the $1.4 billion financing package for this PPP project include a
    Read More
  • Volvo CE adds mid-size models to revamped excavator series
    December 5, 2024
    Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) is further expanding its newest generation of excavators with mid-size crawler models including the EC260 and EC300, available in Europe and North America.
    Read More

Highlighted Content