Turkish Transport Minister Cahit Turhan announced plans to build a new high-speed rail link between Halkalı, Istanbul, Kapıkule (Edirne – Turkey’s border with Bulgaria). Minister Turhan said that the existing line will be used for freight transport and that „the construction of the new railway line will be funded by the European Union”.
In this respect, the first tender will be organized in September. The future high-speed line, Halkalı-Kapıkule, will facilitate the connection of the Turkish railway network with the European railway network.
The Halkalı-Kapıkule line will have a length of 230 kilometers and the tender was estimated at around TRY 3.2 billion(EUR 570 million). The authorities in Turkey estimate that the line could be ready in 2022.
Therefore, the Turkish side of the new Iron Silk Road will be connected directly to the European rail network.
„The European Union has continued to allocate funds to Turkey in the current 2014-2020 funding program, thus the Ministry of Transport has been allocated EUR 372 million. After several analyses, the Halkalı-Kapıkule line was chosen as a priority project and beneficiary of these funds. It was also decided that the line would be built for a 200 km/h speed,” Minister Cahit Turhan explained.
In addition, it was decided that the new line will be built in two stages, the first being the Halkalı-Çerkezköy section, for which the financing will be provided by the Turkish State Railways (TCDD). The second stage concerns the Çerkezköy-Kapıkule section, for which funding will be provided by the European Union.
Turkey’s Transport Minister added that for the second section the pre-tender procedures have already been launched and a number of consultancy proposals have been received. Thus, in September 2018, a first tender could be launched.
„We plan to sign the contract by the end of 2018, and we will start construction works at the beginning of 2019,” Minister Turhan pointed out.
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