Turkey’s Transport Minister to Lay Foundation for Nicosia Northern Ring Road

Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, will be visiting Northern Cyprus on August 28. During his visit, the minister will inspect the access roads to the new Presidential Complex under construction and participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the extension of the Nicosia Northern Ring Road.

This visit will also include Abdulkadir Uraloğlu’s first meetings with TRNC President Ersin Tatar, Speaker of Parliament Zorlu Töre, Prime Minister Ünal Üstel, and Minister of Public Works and Transport Erhan Arıklı.

Speaking about the Nicosia Northern Ring Road, the Turkish Transport Minister highlighted that, in addition to the tourism sector, the TRNC has made significant progress in education by establishing new universities in recent years.

“As a result of these developments, there has been increased traffic on existing road routes, creating a need for a network of high-standard highways. We have designed the TRNC Highway Master Plan, which includes the 20-kilometer Nicosia Northern Ring Road with dual carriageways and hot bituminous asphalt pavement,” said the minister.

The Nicosia Northern Ring Road starts from the Alayköy junction in the west of the city, crosses the northern center of Nicosia along the existing Güzelyurt-Famagusta road, connects to the Haspolat roundabout in the east of the city, and then links to the Kyrenia mountain road.

The minister noted that construction of the first 11-kilometer section was completed on July 20, 2021.

“We are now laying the foundation for the second phase of the project, which is 4.6 kilometers long. We will build two modern interchanges along the road with a platform width of 23 meters, as well as the ‘Kyrenia’ interchange with a span of 48 meters, which will connect the Nicosia Northern Ring to the Kyrenia-Nicosia road,” added Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.

When the entire Nicosia Northern Ring Road is completed, travel time is expected to be reduced from 21 minutes to 9 minutes.

Regarding the construction of access roads to the new Presidential Complex, Parliament Building, and National Garden, the minister stated that a 3.2-kilometer section of the road will be renovated. An additional 2 kilometers of the route will be newly constructed, resulting in a total of 5.2 kilometers of divided roads being put into operation.