Turkish State Railways (TCDD)Company
Logistics villages to link eastern, western parts of Turkey (TR) |
Tuesday 29 June 2010 Turkish State Railways has begun work to set up ‘logistic villages’ in 15 provinces around the country. Including investments amounting to $200 million each, the project will create employment opportunities for thousands of people. It will also relieve the burden on organized industrial zones as well as traffic, according to local authorities. |
Accelerating efforts to realize an annual $60-billion logistics potential, Turkey’s state railways are now establishing logistics centers throughout the country in collaboration with local municipalities and chambers of commerce and industry.
The project aims to ease producers’ access to the market and link eastern and western Turkey by building logistic hubs at key points.
Speaking recently to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, Fevzi Filik, logistics director of the Mersin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said logistics costs make up an important portion of the total costs and directly affect the profit margins in today’s highly competitive business world.
The planned logistic centers will include computerized transportation facilities, warehouses, maintenance centers, offices, bank branches, hospitals and universities. In addition to decreasing logistics costs for local economies, the centers will bring new investment opportunities to the private sector with fast, secure and modern cargo-handling facilities.
Noting the importance of Mersin as a logistics city, particularly with agricultural products, such as citrus, along with the automotive and chemistry sectors, Filik said a new logistics village in Mersin’s Yenice district would create employment opportunities for hundreds of people.
“The Mersin trading zone has a wide hinterland including the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Konya and Ankara,” he said. “When we talk about Mersin’s logistics potential, we should consider all these regions linked to the province by both highways and railways.”
Meanwhile, Hikmet Memiş, city planning manager for the northwestern province of Balıkesir, said a new logistics village to be founded on an area of 160,000 m² in Gökköy district would handle all the cargo currently processed at different points throughout the province.
Noting the importance of the Balıkesir Organized Industrial Zone located just opposite the logistic village in terms of military vehicle and coal cargo, Memiş said the new logistics center would conduct all cargo-related activities in this zone.
Stirring Denizli’s export capacity
The centers developed with the aim of integrating railway and highway links across Turkey will also facilitate also help the country’s logistics sector increase its potential by 10 million tons per year.
With an export potential of $2.5 billion, the Aegean province of Denizli also has a logistics village in Kaklık. According to data obtained from the Denizli Chamber of Commerce, transport is a key cost element in local production since the province is located away from ports. As such, it is of crucial importance to send products to ports in İzmir in a direct, fast and economical way.
Dr. Bülent Uygun, secretary general of the Denizli Chamber of Commerce, told the Daily News that the basic aim of the logistics center is to gather the cargo at one point and distribute it from the place using all the advantages of the legislation stemming from the European Association of Freight Villages.
Noting that the marble sector, one of the leading economic branches in Denizli, will take advantage of the logistics center, Uygun said work was continuing for the second stage of the logistics center.
Similarly, the second stage of the Hasanbey logistics village in Eskişehir is also underway.
Necdet Yürekli, a map technician at the Eskişehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the current center is located on an area of 58.1 hectares within the Organized Industrial Zone. However, the center has not come into operation yet.
Caner Urhan from the Uşak Chamber of Commerce and Industry also said all the feasibility works for a logistics village have been completed in the Aegean province, but added that it also had not yet begun operations.
Other cities and districts where logistics villages are planned include İstanbul’s Hadımköy and Muallimköy neighborhoods, İzmir’s Menderes and Çandarlı districts, Izmit’s Köseköy district, Samsun’s Gelemen district, Kayseri’s Bogazköprü district, Erzurum’s Palandöken district, Konya’s Kayacık district and Bilecik’s Bozüyük district.
Source: Hurriyet |
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