The TBM-1 breakthrough Ceremony for the Halkalı-Ispartakule Railway Project, which is being carried out by the Gülermak-Yapı-Yapı Partnership, was held on November 4 with the participation of Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu and General Manager of Infrastructure Investments Dr. Yalçın Eyügün. Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Uraloğlu said, “The realization of the Silk Railway Project, which is considered the shortest, safest and most economical corridor between Asia and Europe, is one of the international projects we attach the most importance to. The total length of the Halkalı-Ispartakule-Çerkezköy-Kapıkule High-Speed​​Train Line is 229 kilometers. It consists of 3 stages: the 153-kilometer Kapıkule-Çerkezköy stage, the 67-kilometer Çerkezköy-Ispartakule stage, and the 8.4-kilometer Ispartakule-Halkalı stage, which we are currently together with. Minister Uraloğlu continued his words, “As of today, we are happy to have completed our excavation work in the TBM-1 Tunnel, which you see behind me, from our 6.4-kilometer-long double-tube tunnel excavated with TBM machines, and to have reached the stage of seeing the light. We have made 80 percent progress in the excavation work of our TBM-2 Tunnel. We will complete the excavation work there as soon as possible.”