The Turkish Ministry of Transport opened the tender for the design and construction of the Istanbul North Rail Crossing Project (INRAIL). The future line is expected to play a key role for rail freight to, from, and via Türkiye with a projected capacity of 50 million tonnes.

Applicants will be able to submit their proposals until 14 October 2026. The tender follows the securing of significant funding from international banks over the past few months.

Since December 2025, Ankara has obtained around $4.25 billion: $2 billion from the World Bank, $750 million from the Asian Development Bank and $1.5 billion from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In total, the project requires $8 billion, with Türkiye to provide $1.52 billion.

“The line will be double-tracked, electrified, fully signalised, and mixed-use, capable of carrying both passengers and freight, with a maximum freight carrying capacity of 50 million tons per year”, the notice from the ministry said. This tender, however, will not include telecommuting and signalling works, which will have a separate tender procedure, it specified.

The whole tender is made up of four lots for construction and electrification, with proposals being accepted for one or more of them.

In total, almost 127 km of new infrastructure needs to be built: 122.3 km in double track and 4.7 in single track. There will be five twin-tube tunnels for 36.2 km dug with tunnel boring machines, 22 more built with the New Austrian Tunneling Method and another 17 cut-and-cover ones. Construction will also include two viaducts and 40 bridges.

The tender will be a two-envelope process, meaning that applicants will have to submit two separate proposals simultaneously. One will consist of the Technical Part, ”without any reference to prices”, the Turkish ministry said, while the other one will include the Financial Part.

The envelopes containing the Technical Part will be open on 14 October at 14:45, 15 minutes after the deadline for submission. “The Financial Part shall remain unopened and will be held in safe custody of the Employer until the second public opening of the Financial Part, following the evaluation of the Technical Part of the Proposals”, the ministry explained.

Istanbul will be the location of the upcoming RailFreight Summit, and the INRAIL project will be a key topic of the event. Scheduled for 9 and 10 November at the Crown Plaza Hotel, the RailFreight Summit will be the perfect opportunity to discuss the latest development in Türkiye, along the Middle Corridor and for Eurasian trade. First speakers have already been confirmed, with transport expert Kris Kosmala and Martin Koubek from Metrans joining the stage.

Stay up to date here and do not miss out on this must-visit event!