Turkey's biggest ferry launched in eastern province Van

A seven-story ferry, dubbed Turkey?s biggest, was launched April 27 into Lake Van with an eye handling some of the significant trade route between Turkey and Iran.

The 136-meter-long ferry will have space for 50 wagons, four tons and 350 passengers. The ship is also capable of bidirectional loading, which enables a bidirectional transit between two destinations due to its symmetrical construction.

The ferry was constructed over a period of four years.

Celalettin K?l?ço?lu, the project manager responsible for the construction, said testing was scheduled for early July, adding that the ferry was not only the biggest in terms of load capacity but also in travel time.

?The existing ferries have an average load capacity of a ton while ours has four tons. The others arrive at Van from Tatvan in about 4-4.5 hours while ours arrive in three hours and 15 minutes. So, we will gain ground both in terms of load and time,? said K?l?ço?lu, noting that another ferry was also currently being constructed at the dockyard and was expected to be launched in the near future.