Turkey’s railway infrastructure will be privatized in March 2015, Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Lutfi Elvan was quoted by Anadolu agency as saying.
He said that the country is preparing for the railway infrastructure privatization. The total length of the railways in the country reaches 8,600 kilometers.
“Privatization is necessary to resolve the issue with the technical backwardness of Turkey’s railway infrastructure,” the minister said.
Earlier, Elvan reported that Turkey’s railway infrastructure will be privatized in early 2015.
The Transport Minister said that more than 90 percent of the railways was reconstructed in Turkey.
With EUR 15.51 billion allocated for the rail sector as part of the Turkey Vision 2023 plan, the country is expected to have a total conventional rail network length of 25,940 km and a HSR network length of 10,000 km.
Moreover, this year’s priority projects for Turkey are railway transport projects for which investments amount to TRY 9 Billion (over EUR 3 Billion). Turkey also plans to develop its rolling stock production and the high-speed railway network. At the end of 2014, the Turkish Government announced plans to build new high-speed railways, among which Istanbul-Ankara, using the “build and operate” model with investments worth USD 4.5 bn.
In addition to that, Turkey is building a high-speed railway line to Bulgaria, according to Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan.
Elvan informed that the rail line would connect Istanbul to the Kapikule border crossing point and would run through Edirne. He made clear that the tender would be held in 2015.
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