The highways in Turkey are separated into three groups: the state, the provincial and the village roads. The construction, maintenance and repair of these roads are carried out by separate public organizations.
The state roads are the primary highways connecting the regional or provincial centers, the airports and the seaports. The General Directorate of Highways connected to the Ministry of Public Works is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the state roads.
Provincial roads are the secon- dary roads within the borders of the provinces. They connect the cities, towns, counties and the sub-districts to each other, to the provincial centers and to the nearest centers of the neighboring provinces. The total length of the highways is around 62,000 km, and the length of the village roads is around 350,000 km in Turkey. In recent years, the freeway network is rapidly expanding. A total of 198 km of freeways were put into service with connecting roads in 1998 and the total length of the network of freeways has reached 1,726 km.
In recent years, thanks to international highway transportation activities, gradually increasing amounts of foreign currency inflow to Turkey was provided for the Turkish economy. The amount of foreign currency acquired for the economy by this sub-sector approached 1.5 billion US dollars in 1998. The number of companies serving the sector reached 921 with an increase of almost 75 percent and the number of vehicles passed the level of 58,000 between 1990-1998. The amount of investments made for international cargo transportation was more than one billion US dollars in this period.