Türkiye, Bulgaria plan new border gate north of Kapıkule

EDİRNE

Kapıkule Border Gate, Türkiye-Bulgaria border

Türkiye and Bulgaria are in talks to open a new border crossing designed as an alternative to Kapıkule, the country’s busiest border gate.

Kapıkule Border Gate, located on the Türkiye-Bulgaria border, is the largest land border crossing in Türkiye and Eastern Europe and the world’s second-busiest in terms of traffic volume. It serves as a key road corridor for trade and passenger traffic between Asia and Europe.

With thousands of vehicles passing through the crossing every day, the two countries are planning to open a new border gate north of the existing facility in a bid to ease congestion and increase the capacity of cross-border traffic.

The new customs crossing is planned to be established under the name “Kapıkule / Kapitan Andreevo – North.”

According to a statement issued by the Edirne Governor’s Office on Sept. 11, Turkish and Bulgarian delegations discussed planned works for the establishment of the new border crossing, as well as measures to increase the capacity of border crossings between the two countries.

Following the meeting, Edirne Gov. Yunus Sezer, Deputy Trade Minister Sezai Uçarmak and Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev inspected the area north of Kapıkule where the new border gate is planned to be built.

The delegation received information from officials about the works envisaged to be carried out in the area.

In 2025, more than 7.7 million passengers entered or exited Türkiye through Kapıkule. During the summer season alone, which saw the annual influx and return of Turkish expats, Kapıkule handled 2.5 million passengers and more than 600,000 vehicles.

Kapıkule also recorded one of the highest daily volumes of freight traffic in its history, processing a total of 3,442 commercial vehicles, 1,753 inbound and 1,689 outbound, in a single day on Dec. 7, 2025.