Türkiye has moved into the construction phase of a major infrastructure corridor that is planned to provide southeastern Anatolia’s industrialists with direct access to the ports on the eastern Mediterranean coast, a report said Tuesday.
It came a day after the Dörtyol-Hassa Highway and Railway Project, dubbed one of the largest in the country’s history with strategic implications for logistics, trade and regional development, was reported to have secured 1.55 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in external financing, The Caspian Post reports citing Turkish media.
The agreement was signed between the Treasury and Finance Ministry and a consortium of lenders led by France’s Societe Generale. It is backed by the Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), which operates under the Islamic Development Bank.
The tender process for the project, overseen by the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry’s Directorate General of Infrastructure Investments, was completed last year. The groundbreaking and construction stages are expected to start soon, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu on Tuesday emphasized that the Dörtyol-Hassa Highway and Railway Project would enhance the region’s access capacity.
Featuring a tunnel design of three separate tubes, each approximately 20 kilometers long, the initiative will integrate both railway and highway links through the Amanos Mountains, significantly reducing transport distances and costs for regional industries.
Currently, the Iskenderun Port in southern Hatay province is about 210 kilometers from Gaziantep province. The new route is planned to shorten this to roughly 117 kilometers.
"This will enable industrial enterprises in the Gaziantep region to export more easily via the Gulf of Iskenderun," Uraloğlu said, adding that the project will boost trade, tourism and regional development while strengthening supply chains and easing traffic congestion.
“The project will connect the Gulf of Iskenderun to industrial zones behind the Amanos Mountains and Gaziantep via the shortest route. As a result, the importance of Iskenderun ports will grow, tourism development in the region will accelerate, and our provinces will prosper,” he added.
“This project will also contribute to our country’s trade and mark a significant milestone in our infrastructure development.”
Known locally as the "Amanos Tunnel Project," the corridor will include a 20-kilometer single-track railway and 40 kilometers of twin-tube, four-lane highway tunnels. The upgrades will cut several key routes by up to 50 kilometers, accelerating connections between industrial hubs and the Mediterranean.
Uraloğlu stressed the urgency of improving transport infrastructure in the aftermath of the February 2023 earthquakes that struck 11 southeastern provinces.
The region is still recovering from the disaster that claimed more than 50,000 lives, destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings and severely damaged infrastructure.
