The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved a loan in the amount of EUR 314.5 million ($350 million equivalent) for the Turkey Rail Logistics Improvement Project. The project aims to reduce transport costs in selected rail freight corridors and to strengthen institutional capacity at the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MoTI) to deliver rail freight connectivity and manage rail-enabled logistics centers.
The project will support delivery of last-mile rail and multimodal connectivity infrastructure at well-prioritized nodes of Turkey's national railway network. These interventions will help revitalize the transport and logistics sector, and by extension, contribute to the sustainability of the cargo owners operating supply-chains in the project's target corridors in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Despite having economic geography and commodity specialization characteristics that are in-principle favorable to the use of rail freight, rail accounts for only 4% of Turkey's transported tonnage, leaving a large share of freight to be moved by road. This leaves significant economic value on the table in terms of avoidable logistics costs and environmental externalities," says Auguste Kouame, World Bank Country Director for Turkey. "The project's investments will contribute towards more fully realizing rail freight's potential in Turkey."
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure's (MoTI), and has three components:
Component 1 includes construction of railway branch lines and multimodal connections at priority network nodes, including Filyos Port, Çukurova Region Industrial Zones, Iskenderun Bay Maritime Ports, and at additional priority sites to be selected during implementation;
Component 2 includes feasibility studies, detailed engineering designs, environmental and social documentation, and construction supervision for rail last-mile connectivity infrastructure at additional freight nodes;
Component 3 focuses on Phase 2 COVID-19 response support, institutional strengthening, capacity building, and project implementation support, including technical assistance on uniformization of rail technical standards across the national rail network, support in preparation of a strategy document for rail freight sector performance improvement, and support to Turkish State Railways through development of an operational and management model for rail-enabled logistics centers.
"Strengthened management and decision-making capacity at MoTI to promote multimodality, expand the use of rail freight, and improve the quality of rail freight services nationally will be the other benefits," remarked Murad Gürmeriç and Luis Blancas, Task Team Leaders of the Project. "The project is expected to reduce transport costs, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local pollutants, and increased share of rail in the freight transport task of the corridors targeted by the project."
The project is aligned with Turkey's Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for FY18-FY21, which focuses on the three strategic objectives of growth, inclusion, and sustainability. The project will contribute to the growth focus area which has the objective of enhancing the competitiveness of selected industries. The project is also aligned with the WBG approach to supporting client countries in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on their economies, firms and workers.
The impact assessment envisioned in Component 3 of this project will help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 by supporting MoTI in diagnosing the medium- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on multi-modal logistics of both the demand and supply sides, and helping design public, public-private, and/or private interventions - including interventions aimed at tackling behavioral and occupational aspects of risk prevention.
