Third railway gate between Turkey-Syria opens

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Dec 23 2009

Third railway gate between Turkey-Syria opens

The third railway gate between Turkey and Syria opened in Elbeyli town of the southeastern province of Kilis on Tuesday.

The third railway gate between Turkey and Syria opened in Elbeyli town of the southeastern province of Kilis on Tuesday.

Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim and his Syrian counterpart Yarub Sulayman Badr inaugurated the Cobanbey Railway Border Pass.

"We have come one more step closer to Hejaz railway with inauguration of this border pass," Yildirim said during the inauguration ceremony.

The Cobanbey station and 56-kilometer-long Cobanbeyli-Karkamis line were opened in 1912 on the Hejaz railway route, and has not been renovated for 100 years.

Minister Yildirim said Turkey and Syria were working to make their geography more developed, stable and peaceful, to put an end to bloodshed and tears, and to raise the living standards of their people and to make them more prosperous.

Yildirim said that Turkey and Syria had raised their trade volume from 500 million to 1.8 billion USD in ten years, and lifted obstacles before trade, transportation and investments.

Under the project, Turkey renovated 150-kilometer-long Cobanbey (Kilis)-Gaziantep railway.

The Cobanbey station is the third one following Nusaybin and Islahiye, opening to the Middle East.

Turkey aims to transport more than 1 million tons of cargo to Syria and Middle Eastern countries from Southeastern Anatolia provinces through this route, and to raise its actual export capacity by 125 percent.