Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, stated, “We engage in politics for service so that our cities thrive, our country develops, and our citizens can look to the future with confidence.”
Speaking at the Kırık Dam Variant Construction Site in Kastamonu, Uraloğlu emphasized the high potential of Kastamonu in alternative tourism.
Highlighting the city’s extensive forested areas, Uraloğlu stated, “From the forest industry to mining, textiles to tourism, energy to health, we see activity in every field. Therefore, we pay special attention to the development of the transportation and communication infrastructure of our city. Today, we are here to inspect the transportation investments of our ministry in Kastamonu.”
Providing information about the investments in the region, Uraloğlu continued:
“As the Ministry, we have invested approximately 53.93 billion Turkish liras in Kastamonu’s transportation and communication infrastructure since 2002. We have increased the length of divided roads from 47 kilometers to 338 kilometers and bituminous hot mix paved road length from 1 kilometer to 323 kilometers. With the Ilgaz 15 July Independence Tunnel opened in 2016, we reduced the travel time from Çankırı to Kastamonu from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours. We improved 154 kilometers of single-lane roads. There were 103 bridges with a total length of 3,571 meters; we increased it to 219 bridges with a total length of 9,348 meters. We plan to build 2 more bridges with a total length of 180 meters by the end of this year. Kastamonu had 3 tunnels with a total length of 478 meters; we added a tunnel with a length of 10,968 meters. We addressed flood damages.”
Uraloğlu pointed out that the Kırık Dam Variant Road is one of the significant projects in the region, stating, “In the 7-kilometer section of the Kastamonu-Çankırı provincial border road, which serves as a 31-kilometer-long divided road, the ongoing construction of the Kırık Dam will be submerged. Therefore, we redesigned the route in this section, planning a 20.4-kilometer Kırık Dam Variant in the standard of bituminous hot mix paved divided road. The project cost is 8.2 billion Turkish liras. The project includes 5,330 meters of double-tube tunnels, one 279-meter-long single-tube tunnel, two double viaducts with a total length of 686 meters, 6 different-level junctions, and 2 level crossings. The project has achieved a 29.5% physical realization.”
Regarding the ongoing construction of the Küre Uzunöz Tunnel, Uraloğlu mentioned, “Of course, we do not limit our work in Kastamonu to just road investments. We plan Kastamonu’s transportation infrastructure in an integrated manner with all modes of transportation. Looking back, Kastamonu had been condemned to live with an abandoned airport since 1959. This airport was used for various purposes, from car races to weddings, model airplane shows to grazing animals. For the people of Kastamonu, and the region, it was a 54-year dream, an endless story, but in 2013, we built a modern terminal building with a capacity of 1.5 million passengers, ending this story with a happy ending and turning a dream into reality. In 2023, more than 60,000 citizens traveled with our airport.”
Emphasizing significant investments in the maritime sector, Uraloğlu said, “We completed the construction and repair works of Bozkurt-İlişi, Doğanyurt-Abana, İnebolu-Gemiciler, Cide-İlyasbey, İnebolu Özlüce, İnebolu-Evrenye, and Denizkonak, Uğurlu, and Çamaltı fishing harbors. We completed the Çatalzeytin coastal fortification. We continue to Abana coastal fortification. We added the Doğanyurt coastal fortification to our investment program.”
Addressing the investments in communication infrastructure, Uraloğlu stated, “We increased the length of fiber optic cable from 954 kilometers to 3,390 kilometers. We have 375,000 broadband subscribers. With the works carried out under the universal service fund, we covered 67 villages with 67 base stations. We continue to work to cover 43 more villages.”
Uraloğlu concluded by expressing that they have implemented one after another transportation projects that will open the way for investments in tourism, agriculture, and industry in Kastamonu. He stated, “For the city of civilizations, Kastamonu, we have a lot of work to do, and we have a lot of time to spend on Kastamonu. We engage in politics for service so that our cities thrive, our country develops, and our citizens can look to the future with confidence. After a short break, our AK Party Kastamonu Municipality candidate Tahsin Babaş, a former mayor, has once again become a candidate from our party to serve Kastamonu. I wholeheartedly believe that, with the vision of our esteemed President, starting from the true principles of municipalism for Turkey’s Centennial cities, he will serve Kastamonu by saying ‘Where did we leave off?’ Hopefully, our AK Party Kastamonu Municipality candidate Tahsin Babaş, along with our other district mayor candidates, will implement all the planned projects.”*
Later, Minister Uraloğlu visited Kastamonu Governor Meftun Dallı in his office.
source: aa.com.tr / prepared by Melisa Beğiç