Turkey may open tender to buy 80 high-speed trains this year

ISTANBUL

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Turkey plans to open a tender to acquire 80 high-speed trains by the middle of this year, Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım has stated, adding that the expected value of the investment will be around $5-6 billion.“Our ministry has been working on a tender to buy 80 high-speed trains. This will be an investment worth around $5-6 billion. The tender may be held by the middle of this year,” Yıldırım told journalists at the opening of an international railways, infrastructure and logistics fair in Istanbul on March 3.The ministry plans to acquire a total of 106 trains in line with a plan to extend the country’s high-speed train network.An official from the ministry told daily Hürriyet that the planned tender would set the use of local sources by 51 percent in 2013. The launch of a wagon factory in Turkey was also named a planned condition in the tender.The planned investment for the acquisition of 106 trains was then given at around 6 billion Turkish Liras.Yıldırım also said a plan that would enable the private sector to transport goods by rail is also about to be completed.“We could see private companies entering the sector by this year,” he noted.Yıldırım recently stated that the government planned to connect 14 cities, encompassing 55 percent of Turkey’s population, within the high-speed train network by 2023.