Government plans $19 billion investment in transport in 2025

ANKARA

The Turkish government plans to invest 662.6 billion Turkish Liras ($19b billion) under several transport programs next year, according to the draft 2025 budget.

The government is pouring money into the transport infrastructure to keep up with fast technological developments in the industry.

Total investments in the transport system will increase by 36.7 percent next year compared with 2024, shows the draft budget.

The lion’s share of investments will go to road transport. The government is increasing the money it allocates for road transport by 30 percent compared with 2024 to 329.9 billion.

There were 30.7 million registered vehicles in Türkiye as of September, of which 52 percent were passenger cars and 19.6 percent were motorcycles, according to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Another 215 billion liras will be spent on investment in railroad transport this year, which marks a 42 percent increase from 2024.

The third largest beneficiary of government investment will be the transport information and communication program at 17.4 billion liras, up 62 percent.

The budget allocated for maritime transport will be increased from 4.3 billion liras to 5.7 billion liras.

Some 65,807 million vessels went through the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits in the first nine months of 2024, Transport Minister Abdülkadir Uraloğlu unveiled earlier this week.

The number of vessels going through the Istanbul Strait increased by 7.1 percent year-on-year to 31,161, while the annual increase for the Çanakkale Strait was 3.1 percent to 34,646.

Over the last 20 years, 1.9 million vessels went through the Turkish waterways, according to the minister.