TURKEY: The UK government’s export credit agency UKEF has agreed to underwrite a €1·03bn loan arranged by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group for three Turkish companies to construct Turkey’s 140 km long Yerköy – Kayseri route modernisation scheme.
UKEF has partnered with export credit agencies from Italy (SACE), which reinsured €249m of the guarantee, Poland’s KUKE, which reinsured €205m, and Austria’s OeKB (€176m).
A separate €220m commercial loan from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit makes the total financing package worth €1·2bn. A ceremony for the signing of the credit agreement in Istanbul in early January was attended by UK Secretary of State for Business & Trade Kemi Badenoch.
The project involves significant realignment and rebuilding of the existing railway between the two cities. It is being undertaken by a joint venture of Doğuş İnşaat, Çelikler and Özkar, who were also the main contractors for the Ankara – Sivas high speed line which opened in May last year.
The Doğuş-Çelikler-Özkar consortium submitted a winning bid of TL17bn in a tendering process held in December 2021.
The Yerköy - Kayseri route is the southern section of a corridor linking the capital Ankara with Kirikkale and Kayseri.
The section between Ankara and Yerköy has already been upgraded to support operations at up to 250 km/h as part of the Ankara – Sivas project. Work on the Yerköy – Kayseri section will involve 139·5 km of double-tracking and electrification, and construction of two stations at Yenifakılı and Şefaatli.
Due for completion in January 2027, the project will include 28 km of new alignment, of which 2·3 km will be on bridges or viaducts, and 13·1 km will be in tunnel. Services on the new line will operate at up to 250 km/h, reducing journey times between Yerköy and Kayseri from 3 h 30 min to under 1 h. Completion of this and related high speed sections will also see the Ankara – Kayseri travel time fall from around 7 h on the legacy network to approximately 2 h.
