Turkey to privatise railway system

Turkey's transportation, maritime affairs and communications minister, Lütfi Elvan, said on Thursday that the government plans to open tenders for the privatization of the state-owned railway system.

He said the transition into private railways would be finished before the end of 2015.

Officials have separately said that state personnel working on the nationalised rail lines would be dismissed with a severance package worth 40 percent of their annual salary, according to Today's Zaman.