Yapı Merkezi, a Turkish construction company laid the foundations of the Awash-Kombolcha-Hara Gebeya Railway project in Ethiopia yesterday. The company had won a 391 kilometer-stretch of the 2,400 kilometer-long railway project, which was sold at a tender by the Ethiopian Railway Corporation in 2012. Yapı Merkezi took the first step to benefit from the financial cooperation between Turkey and Ethiopia by bringing together Türk Eximbank and European financiers for the financing of the project. The cost of the project, which is expected to be completed within four years, is estimated to be $1.7 billion. Ersin Arıoğlu, chairman of Yapı Merkezi Holding, said that they had constructed 2,600 kilometers of rail in six countries so far. "In this project, we established two construction sites and 1,500 Turkish people will be employed. Thirty-six trains will operate on the railway, 60 percent of which will be used to carry loads and the rest will be used to transport passengers," Arıoğlu said.