EATL

 

As the Caucasus countries and the Central Asian countries became members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), the Euro-Asian Transport Linkages  Project (EATL) came to the agenda in the UN/ECE Inland Transport Committee. Under the EATL Project, the connection of the main regions in Asia to the Pan-European Transport Corridors has been defined as the target, and related to this target, taking measures to facilitate transport easy was adopted before initiating large scale investments in road infrastructure. Within this framework, based on the idea that                   the execution of activities in the direction of the planning of the development of the Euro-Asian links has been necessary,  studies on developing and planning the Euro-Asian Transport Linkages have been started by United Nations  Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN/ESCAP).

The phase I of the EATL Project comprising the period between 2002–2007 started as a joint undertaking between the UN/ECE and the UN/ESCAP. In this phase, the EATL highway routes and priorities of the development of these highway routes were identified as a result of the studies done with the National Focal Points. In the phase II of the EATL Project comprising the period between 2008 and 2013, the group of experts with the help of the UN/ECE secretariat and consultants selected nine rail and nine road corridors linking the European continent with the Asian continent and determined the costs of 311 projects belonging to the member countries. The aims specified in the phase III of the EATL Project comprising the period between 2013 and 2015 were the changing of the condition of the EATL transport links into the operational state, the removing of physical and administrative bottlenecks in the issue of border crossing in overland transport between Europe and Asia as well as the facilitating of financing of infrastructure projects.

Turkey plays an important role in the process of establishment of the Euro-Asian Transport Linkages because of its geographical location. As a result of the decisions made in the first and second phase of the EATL Project, the road network of 5,663 km which consists of both E-roads and Asian Highways in Turkey was defined as the Turkish Euro-Asian Highway Network. In addition, the connecting roads to the Port of Filyos and to the Port of Çandarlı approximately 208 km in length were proposed to be incorporated to the Euro-Asian Highway Network.

                  (http://www.unece.org/trans/main/eatl)