Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Uraloğlu stated, “We are pleased to see the intense interest of international credit institutions in the railway project passing through Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is one of the routes of the Development Road Project.”.

The World Road Congress, held every 4 years by the International Road Federation (IRF) based in Geneva, started this year at the Istanbul Congress Center with the theme “Connecting for Enhanced Mobility: Roads as Providers of a Sustainable Future for Everyone”. The opening speech of the congress, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also sent a video message, was delivered by Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Uraloğlu, IRF President Dimitris Mandalozis, and Robert de Groot, Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Uraloğlu, in his speech at the congress, emphasized that IRF has been working on the development of sustainable roads and road networks since 1948 and expressed Turkey’s pride and satisfaction in being a member of this prestigious organization through the Roads Turkish National Committee since 1991.

Uraloğlu stated that at the congress, all aspects of mobility, digitalization, climate change, and green transformation will be discussed, emphasizing that he firmly believes that they will make significant contributions to the sector with solutions based on common sense. Highlighting that Turkey is situated at the intersection of continents, civilizations, and ancient transportation corridors such as the Historical Silk and Spice Roads, Uraloğlu emphasized the strategic importance of the Central Corridor, which our country plays a key role in.

“We have implemented many mega projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway, Eurasia Tunnel, Marmaray, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, and Northern Marmara Highway that came into operation in 2017 in the context of the development of the Central Corridor,” Uraloğlu said.

“THE DEVELOPMENT ROAD PROJECT TO PROVIDE SEAMLESS ACCESS TO EVERY EUROPEAN COUNTRY”

Minister Uraloğlu addressed the Development Road Project, stating that the project will provide seamless access to every country in Europe by road and rail from the FAW Port in Iraq to London. Uraloğlu shared information that the project, planned to be completed in 2030, includes the construction of approximately 1200 kilometers of highway and railway from the FAW Port to Turkey, as well as the development of a railway on the route of 2094 kilometers and a highway infrastructure of 1923 kilometers, associated with the Development Road corridor in our country. Uraloğlu continued, “I would like to mention here that we are pleased to see the recent intense interest of international credit institutions, especially the World Bank, towards the railway project passing through Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is one of the key routes of the Development Road Project. I can also say here that we will take concrete steps to start the construction process of this project in the early months of 2025.” Uraloğlu emphasized that they give top priority to redefining and keeping transportation policies up to date based on global and regional conditions, highlighting that Turkey has transformed into an international logistics center providing multimodal transportation infrastructure from airways to waterways, highways to railways. He pointed out that they have equipped the country from east to west, from north to south with high-standard road networks, with a total of 29,590 kilometers out of the total 68,494 kilometers of the road network consisting of divided highways and having connected 77 out of 81 provinces with divided road networks. Uraloğlu also mentioned that they successfully completed mega highway projects such as the Northern Marmara Highway and Yavuz Sultan Bridge, as well as the Eurasia Tunnel, Osmangazi Bridge, Istanbul-Izmir Highway, 1915 Gallipoli Bridge, Ankara-Niğde Highway in a short time through public-private sector cooperation.

Uraloğlu stated that although divided highways constitute 43% of the total road network, they serve approximately 83% of the total traffic moving on the network, indicating that citizens traveling on divided highways save approximately 739 million hours and around 2,437 million liters of fuel annually, which results in approximately 113.87 billion lira in labor savings and about 83.62 billion lira in fuel savings, providing a total annual economic benefit of 197.49 billion lira. He proudly mentioned that with investments made in the past 22 years,
they have reduced the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle-kilometers in traffic accidents by 77%.

“DIVIDED HIGHWAYS HAVE REDUCED EXHAUST EMISSIONS BY APPROXIMATELY 5.27 MILLION TONS ANNUALLY”

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Uraloğlu highlighted that the road transport sector is responsible for 94.8% of transportation-related carbon emissions or sources, emphasizing that the shift of road freight transport share to more sustainable transport modes to reduce emissions is critical in the fight against climate change. He stated that they aim to create a sustainable and efficient mobility ecosystem by developing human and environmentally focused smart transportation solutions. Uraloğlu mentioned that with