Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has signed a 1.67 billion-euro financing agreement with the World Bank for the Istanbul North Rail Crossing Project (INRAIL), describing the scheme as a strategic investment for Türkiye’s transport network and regional trade role.
Speaking at a ceremony at the World Bank’s headquarters during the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, Şimşek said the project would help remove one of the most critical bottlenecks on the Middle Corridor and strengthen confidence in Türkiye’s development agenda.
The World Bank said earlier it had approved a $2 billion loan for INRAIL, a 127-kilometer electrified, high-capacity railway line that will create a new overland rail crossing of the Bosphorus using the rail-ready Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.
The lender said the project would reinforce Türkiye’s role as a logistics hub linking Europe, Asia and the Middle East, while also improving the reliability of strategic corridors including the Trans-Caspian route, the Türkiye-EU corridor and the Iraq Development Road.
At the signing ceremony, Şimşek said railways had become one of Türkiye’s top transport priorities and argued that the partnership with the World Bank sent a signal of confidence to global markets.
He said the project was not an ordinary infrastructure investment, but one that would sharply expand freight rail capacity across the Bosphorus from around 3 million tons a year to 50 million tons.
Şimşek also said the project ranked as the third-largest ever approved in the World Bank’s history.
The World Bank put the project’s total estimated cost at about $8.3 billion and said its loan forms the lead part of a broader financing package of roughly $6.75 billion expected from six multilateral development banks.
Anna Bjerde, the bank’s managing director of operations, said the rail crossing would strengthen links along three strategic corridors — the Middle Corridor, the Development Road and the Türkiye-Europe corridor — making transport across the Bosphorus faster, more reliable and more efficient.
Şimşek said the project would support Türkiye’s long-term development story and create higher-income jobs, while deepening the country’s position in international trade routes.
