While the GAZİRAY Suburban Metro Line Project, carried out in cooperation with Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and the Republic of Turkey State Railways (TCDD), will breathe life into the transportation of the city, an evaluation meeting was held with TCDD General Manager Metin Akbaş and his team after the field investigations.
At the meeting held at the Metropolitan Municipality Assembly Meeting Hall, with the participation of TCDD and the relevant units of the Metropolitan Municipality, the latest status of the project was discussed, along with the presentations, and the advantages of the giant investment that will be put into service within the year for the city of Gazi were also discussed.
GAZİRAY, which is 5 kilometers long, with a 25 kilometer section connecting the Gaziantep Small Industrial Site (KÜSGET) and the organized industrial zones, will serve with 16 stations in metro standards. At the intersection of the line with the highway and the city, 1 bridge, 6 underpasses, 6 overpasses and 26 culverts were built. The line will be integrated with other public transportation vehicles and will be included in urban transportation with transfer points.
ŞAHİN: GAZİANTEP LIVES A HISTORIC DAY
Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin stated that they were very excited about the GAZİRAY evaluation meeting and said, “Gaziantep is living a historical day. GAZİRAY was our dream for 10 years. All of our ministers contributed a lot to this project. We have come to the end of the project. All trials are completed quickly. Hopefully, within this year, we will have completed the infrastructure that will carry 50 thousand people a day.” said.
Pointing out that the trains rented from Taşımacılık AŞ in the first place will be put into service, after a year, the local and national trains, which the people of Gaziantep decide on the color and appearance, will be offered to the public, Şahin said:
“But we are honored to work with a very expert team that knows the job that really makes the job easier. It provides transportation of 250 thousand people per day between Small Industry and Organized Industry. We will make this transportation beneficial to the environment and the city, and with the finalization of the GAZİRAY project, we will facilitate the transportation of our workers and bring them to a healthier situation. 5 kilometers of GAZİRAY will be underground. This shows that the metro is now coming to the city. It was planned to go from the top, especially in the hotels and hospitals area, when the project started, but this would cause the city to be divided into two with great walls. Therefore, this project was taken underground and the project was revised to consist of 4 lines. Passengers will be transported at 25,5 kilometers between Small Industry and Organized Industrial Zone. This project is very important for the green city. It is very important to transport by reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions without polluting the air. It will be the best work done by a government that signed the Paris Agreement.”
ŞAHİN: THE CITY WILL BE RELAXED WHEN WE OPEN THE GAZİRAY LINE
Şahin stated that the project has now come to an end and said, “Our city of Gazi is receiving a great migration. We needed to implement this railway line very quickly. This job is very important to us. We transport 250 thousand people per day on the Small Industrial Site and Organized Industrial Zone line. The worker is getting tired on the road. We became the 'Green City'. This method of transport currently pollutes the air. While our own tram line is running, we are building bike paths to encourage cycling. When we put the GAZİRAY line into operation, the transportation chaos in the workers' country will end and the city will be relieved.” he said.
AKBAS: THE GAZİRAY PROJECT IS AT THE rank of 95 percent at the point reached
Metin Akbaş, General Manager of TCDD, also stated that he and his teammates examined the last point reached in the GAZİRAY project for 2 days and continued as follows:
“This project is a project with 16 stations starting from Başpınar and continuing to Taşlıca. This project, which has 25,5 kilometers, has 2 lines of suburban trains and 2 lines of high-speed trains. At the point reached in the project, there is a progress of 95 percent. Our people from Gaziantep have also witnessed it. We sent our high-speed train set to Gaziantep last week. We made the measurements of the train. There are no problems with the systems. These are the studies we have done for the certificate. As of May 5, we have started signal testing and certification studies. We checked the line yesterday. Today, we held a meeting with the Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality, Fatma Şahin. As you know, this line is being built in cooperation with Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. We talked about what needs to be done for the business and the missing topics. We gave instructions on the issues that need to be completed on this path.”
AKBAS: WE HAVE GAINED A TOTAL 112 KM OF RAILWAYS TO GAZIANTEP
Akbaş pointed out that they have brought Gaziantep another 112 kilometer railway and said: The 13 target announced by our ministry last year is to increase the existing railway network in Turkey to 22 kilometers. In other words, we need to build a new road as much as the existing railway and build an additional 2053 thousand 28 kilometers of railway on it. It's a huge number. The new lines to be built consist of high-speed trains and high-speed trains. The construction of 500 kilometers of the 2 kilometer line that we will build in this direction in the future continues. 500 thousand 15 kilometers of this figure consists of high-speed train lines. The project of this 500-kilometer train line, which will transport both passengers and freight, has been completed. In addition to this, we have an ongoing railway line of 4 thousand 714 kilometers. When we finalize these projects, we will have a target of 4, namely 400 thousand 4 kilometers of railway network.”
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