Land

A real hub for the transportation and logistics from the whole Central Asian, Asian and Middle East areas, on the path towards Europe.

(ICE) - ROME, MAY 22 - During the conference held in Seoul by the UIC (International Union of Railways), the General Director of Turkish State Railways (TCDD) Suleyman Karaman, has proposed to members of a plan Action to allow Turkey to become not only a corridor for freight from Asia (especially from China, via Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Iran), but above all a real hub for the transportation and logistics from the whole Central Asian, Asian and Middle East areas, on the path towards Europe. The strategy put in place by Turkey, which also involve countries such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia, is that Russo-Iranian, would bring goods from Asia to Europe through a route that would prefer Russia. The turkish project would also allow goods to Asian and Middle Eastern Europe to arrive at least two days earlier than the route that transit in Russia. According to local analysts, the action intense lobbying that Turkey is playing within the UIC could enable the country to obtain the green light by next year, also because there are many domestic and international investments that Turkey is preparing to bring forward for this important project - which would also see as protagonists also important ports such as Izmir and Mersin on the Mediterranean and Trabzon on the Black Sea. In particular, the DG of TCDD, stressed the importance of completing the Marmaray Project (76.3 km) that will connect the European side of Istanbul (Halkali) with the Asian (Gebze) for integration with the European network and one from Asia and the Middle East ‘ “Iron Silk Road” railway network goods between Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan (100 km of a new route which will add 300 km of restoration - specifically a few days ago the Ministry of Transport turkish has won the race for trafficking to Georgia in local consortium Ozgun Yapi Sanay / Celikler Taahut Insaat, an amount equal to 233 million dollars). The total budget provided by the government for the railway sector until 2010 is equal to over 5 billion dollars, while the sum set aside until 2023 is around 23.5 billion dollars. The routes of greatest interest are currently: Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya, Ankara-Sivas, Bursa-Osmaneli, Izmir and Ankara-Istanbul-Bulgarian border.