Türkiye to launch tender for largest-ever railway project

ISTANBUL

Türkiye is preparing for one of the largest railway investments in its history with a railway project in the megacity of Istanbul, a strategic infrastructure plan designed to ease freight traffic in the country’s most populous city and strengthen east-west trade routes.

According to Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, the Istanbul Northern Railway Project’s international tender notice will be issued by the end of this year.

It will be the first large-scale international railway tender in Türkiye with multiple global lenders involved simultaneously.

The $8.1 billion project foresees the construction of a 125-kilometer freight railway line linking Çayırova on the Asian side to Çatalca on the European side, crossing the Bosphorus via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which was built with a designated railway passage.

Expected to meet modern infrastructure standards while minimizing environmental impact, the project will be financed jointly by major international institutions, including the World Bank.

Uraloğlu underlined that Türkiye’s geographical position makes it a natural logistics bridge between Asia and Europe, adding that this strategic advantage is being used to promote regional and global trade, diversify supply chains and support sustainable development.

Building on this approach, Türkiye on Aug. 22 laid the foundation of a railway line in its eastern region that will form a vital part of the Zangezur Corridor, a strategic route set to reshape connectivity in the South Caucasus.