Announcement of Turkey to Improve Highway System on June 11, 1984

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 84/94 Contact: Fawzi Rihane June 11, 1984 (202) 477-5325 TURKEY TO IMPROVE HIGHWAY SYSTEM A program designed to maintain and improve the highway system in Turkey will be implemented with the assistance of a loan of $186.4 million from The World Bank. The loan will help finance an equipment renewal program in the General Directorate of Highways (KGM) aimed primarily at improving highway maintenance. The program also aims to improve pavement research and management, and to modernize the management of the equipment fleet and spare parts. The KGM is responsible for construction and maintenance of primary and secondary roads totalling about 61,000 kilometers (km), of which about two-thirds are paved. Turkey's primary and secondary highway network carries about 70 percent of total land freight traffic and about 90 percent of land passenger traffic. A major part of the system was built in the 1950s and 1960s and is now near the end of its normal service life. Road conditions deterioriated further on the segments that have experienced rapid increase in transit and export traffic in recent years. The project will rehabilitate and upgrade some 279 kilometers of two main highways that are used extensively to transport goods for export. A four-year program will be implemented to replace obsolete and uneconomic equipment. About 80 percent of the new equipment will be used for periodic and routine maintenance. The loan will also finance a program of overseas fellowships for the technical staff of KGM. The program will include training in the management of the equipment fleet and spare parts inventory, planning design and construction, and pavement research and management. The World Bank loan is for 17 years including four years' grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 10.08 percent, linked to the cost of the Bank's borrowings. It also carries an annual commitment charge of 0.75 percent on undisbursed balances and a front-end fee of 0.25 percent on the amount of the loan. NOTE: Money figures are expressed in U.S. dollar equivalents.