Turkey has launched an international tender divided into three lots to upgrade and electrify the Divriği–Kars–Georgian border railway, one of the main bottlenecks along the Middle Corridor. According to a 2024 World Bank assessment, this section has the most severe capacity constraints along the rail route connecting the China–Kazakhstan border with the Turkish–Bulgarian border. Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu expects construction work to take four years.
The project, known as the Eastern Türkiye Middle Corridor Railway Development Project (ETMIC), will upgrade 667 kilometres of existing railway. It includes the renewal of railway infrastructure and track, electrification, signalling and telecommunications, as well as the addition of a second track on the final section. The route is divided into four sections, with the first tender covering the initial three: Lot 1 comprises Divriği–Erzincan (156 kilometres), Lot 2 Erzincan–Erzurum (223 kilometres) and Lot 3 Erzurum–Kars (208 kilometres), with electrification extending for 288 kilometres from Erzurum to the Georgian border. The fourth section, from Kars to the Georgian border, was covered by a separate tender, already completed with financing from the Islamic Development Bank, for double-tracking, electrification and signalling.
The railway's annual capacity is expected to increase from 750,000 to 20 million tonnes, although actual freight volumes will depend on demand and the performance of other sections of the corridor. The route crosses the provinces of Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum and Kars and also serves domestic transport needs. According to the World Bank, the investment's success will also depend on rail connections to ports and industrial centres, capacity across the rest of the network and coordination between the countries along the corridor. The infrastructure under consideration also includes a rail crossing of the Bosphorus via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.
Antonio Illariuzzi
