IMM President Ekrem İmamoğluspoke at the ceremony held for the resumption of the construction works of the "Ümraniye-Ataşehir-Göztepe Metro Line", which has been under construction for about a year. Saying, “Any investment in this country and in this city, there will never be a sole proprietorship, there will never be a single owner,” said İmamoğlu, “If we are contributing to a service today, the only owner is the people of Istanbul. Our understanding is to manage the budget and existence of this country in the most characteristic way; is to complete the best projects at the cheapest cost, with the highest quality, and to demonstrate that the work produced belongs to the nation. In that respect, if we are starting a business today, this ingenuity belongs to the people of Istanbul. When we finish this job, the people of Istanbul will be proud of themselves. The owner of every investment is a citizen. It is neither a party, nor a period, nor a political leader, nor a head of government or a mayor. It is owned by our millions of people here and those who are not.”

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) President Ekrem İmamoğlu, has restarted the construction works of the "Ümraniye-Ataşehir-Göztepe Metro Line", which has been under construction for about 1 year. At the ceremony held for the resumption of the works, İmamoğlu was accompanied by IMM Secretary General Yavuz Erkut, Deputy Secretary Generals Orhan Demir and Murat Kalkanlı and Head of Rail Systems Department Pelin Alpkökin. Making a speech before the opening, İmamoğlu said, “There have been mayors and technical people who have contributed to the construction of the subway for about 30 years, trying to put one stone on another, trying to add new kilometers. This process continues. Of course, we have criticisms about the speed. We should have been more planned, qualified and fast. Of course, we thank you for all the work and effort. Currently, there are approximately 233 kilometers of active metro lines in Istanbul. 79 kilometers of this is serving our Istanbul in the form of Marmaray, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Transport. In a city of 16 million people, 233 kilometers is actually a low figure. It should have been much higher. The rate of the rail system in public transportation in Istanbul is around 18 percent. We are at the very beginning of the work,” he said.

“WE SHOULD KNOW WHERE ISTANBUL WAS GOING”

Am If there is an unplanned development and population development in a city, the subway investments will not be enough for that city ”, says İmamoğlu. When making metro investments, we must know exactly where Istanbul is going. The entire design of this city has to be evident. This will be the most valuable character we will present. We have set ourselves the year 2050 as a goal. Although it is thought to be very far, it is actually very close. We want Istanbul to know that we are very planned and meticulous about the planning of the future. In doing so, we will involve all stakeholders of Istanbul into the process. The product will be the product of all of us ”.

“ISTANBUL WILL TAKE CHARACTERIC STEPS ABOUT THE FUTURE”

Imamoğlu said that an 222 kilometer subway work is underway in Istanbul and said: “This is the 81 kilometer share of the Ministry of Transport. 141 kilometer subway works are continuing by IMM. Unfortunately, the 8 project, such as the Göztepe-Ümraniye line that we are in, is projects that have stopped working for about 1 years or longer. There are many reasons for this. We are aware that there is a tight burden in front of us; but my friends are very determined. Istanbul is a strong and determined city. Istanbul, as well as designing the future of the city, will take solid and characterful steps regarding its investments. With the signature we signed in August, we have overcome most of the financial problem related to this area. We will activate this construction site which has been around for more than 1 years. We expect this line to be completed in 2022. ”

İSTANBUL ISTANBUL PUBLIC IS THE ONLY OWNER OF SERVICES ”

Imamoğlu added that 30 has the labor of tens of thousands of people in its annual metro works. “We know how Marmaray started in the 90 years and how it was done. For example, we are talking about a project that was started during the late Ecevit period and completed during the period of President Erdoğan. In this country and in this city, there will never be one owner of any investment. If we contribute to a service today, the only owner is the people of Istanbul. Apart from that, neither individual nor party ownership is ever and never true. If we contribute to a service today, the only owner is the people of Istanbul. Our understanding is to manage the budget and existence of this country in the most characterful way; The best projects, the cheapest cost, the highest quality way to complete and produce the work belongs to the nation. In this respect, if we are starting a business today, this ingenuity belongs to the people of Istanbul. When we finish this work, the people of Istanbul will be proud of it. We will definitely put this embrace in our new understanding of local government and in our view of investments. The owner of each investment is a citizen. It is neither a party, a period, nor a political leader, nor a head of a government or a mayor. The owner is a million people here and there. Bulunmayan Imamoglu, after the speech by inviting the accompanying delegation to him, “May Allah end all. Good luck auspicious.

Imamoglu, then answered questions from journalists on the agenda. The questions asked by Imamoglu and the answers given by the IMM President are as follows:

“MORE FUTURE…”

You said that the places whose construction was abandoned are dangerous tehlike

- An unfinished tunnel has been opened. We run a study entirely about fixing these and making the work sites stop. My friends are managing a two-stage process here. First of all, they want to eliminate these threats. In fact, they have made good progress here. We will ensure that Istanbulites will be comfortable especially from this autumn and winter period. But this is not enough. Duran metro lines should also continue. It is a concrete one of the steps taken here regarding the metro lines that stop. Our close discussions about the others continue. One way institution - not the jobs to be solved with the contractor company. The workload of the works we are talking about now has very high sums. This definitely needs project borrowing. In this sense, we come together and talk to both financial institutions and contractors. The result we have reached today is one of them. More will come. Our goal is, in fact, on all of the lines - very curious Kabataş It is to schedule the concrete end of projects in projects such as the Mahmutbey Metro Line reaching January-February of 2020. Our target for fixed lines is to ensure that all of them are completed and implemented in the 2022-2023 band. As we come to life step by step and achieve a result like this, we will both share this good news with our Istanbul citizens and with you. It is not our understanding of service to provide information before concrete information takes place.

MET METRO PRIORITY FOR US ”

Why have these lines been standing for a year?

- I think the irregular starting process. Project is made, feasibility is done, of course, it is put out to tender; but with this tender process, the financial order is also organized. If a loan or resource is available, if any, that resource is transferred. But since that design was not made here, many projects started in 2017 were stopped at the end of 2017 and 2018. It was a little bit of an effort to mobilize for 1-2 months but then it was stopped again. It has such a consequence of the last 2-3 years regarding the design disorder, unfortunately. At the point we have reached, let us admit that if we have reached a result in the 30-year subway struggle 150 kilometers today - if we do not count Marmaray - this is unfortunately not a success. I wish we could speak higher kilometers. I wish we could be talking 18-40s of transportation, not 50% of the metro. But this did not happen. In fact, those jobs that were compressed to the last 2-3 years should have been planned in the past and these jobs should have been prioritized. This is a situation related to the policies of a city, a country sometimes depending on transportation, investment priority and financial regulation. For us, metro is a priority. After that, by prioritizing our movements towards this; but we will continue our way by taking the healthy steps steadily, without leaving any work left to the contractor.

350 THOUSAND PASSENGERS

From the Göztepe Station, when the line for the 350 thousand passengers will be opened per day, Halkalı-Gebze Superficial Metro Line; From New Sahara Station Kadıköy-Kartal-Tavsantepe Metro Line; Integration to Üsküdar-Ümraniye-Çekmeköy / Sancaktepe Metro Line will be provided from Çarşı Station. KadıköyThe line with 11 stations between Ataşehir and Ümraniye districts will be 13 kilometers long. The journey time is 20 minutes, while the one-way passenger capacity is 31 thousand. The start and end stations of the line will be Göztepe 60. Yıl Park and Ümraniye Kazım Karabekir Mahallesi.