Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Thursday a plan to increase speed limits on highways from 120 kph to 140 kph (75 mph to 87 mph), starting on July 1.

The minister had announced plans for increasing the limits back in 2019, though he added that it would depend on the success to curb the number of traffic accidents.

Speaking in a live televised interview at TGRT Haber of Turkey, Soylu said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had approved the plans and they had also discussed them with the Ministry of Transportation, which oversees the operation of highways. "The interior minister is authorized to increase speed limits by 20%. We discussed it with the Ministry of Transportation and they told us that the new speed standards were suitable for some highways," he said.

Soylu said they would test the new decision on the North Marmara Highway, a major road network in the country’s northwest that spans across Istanbul and Kocaeli. He added that motorists can drive up to 154 kph, "the limit that costs them administrative fines," but added that they should not speed that much.

The minister noted that along with the North Marmara Highway, highways connecting Istanbul to Izmir and the capital Ankara to the central province of Niğde were "suitable" for new speed limits.