• Publish Date
  27.11.2019
• Subscribe
• Share

Imamoglu Recommenced The Metro Line Construction That Was Halted For Two Years

Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Ekrem Imamoglu recommenced Cekmekoy-Sancaktepe-Sultanbeyli Metro Line that was halted two years ago. Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Ekrem Imamoglu emphasised that public is the owner of every service provided to the city and said, “Power and potential of Istanbul is unique. World stops but Istanbul do not stop. Istanbul is the centre of the World. It is not the fact that applies to this very day but it has been the fact for the past thousands of years. It has been the fact for the past, it is the fact in this very day and it is going to be the fact in the future as well. We have to act accordingly and support each other. We have to act together. Hearts of every single one of 16 million residents of Istanbul should go out to Istanbul.”

Only % 6 of the physical construction of the construction of Cekmekoy-Sancaktepe-Sultanbeyli Metro Line is completed. The project was halted for 2 years and it is recommenced recently. Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Ekrem Imamoglu participated in the recommencing ceremony of the project and TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) which is known as the “underground beast” is delivered to the construction field of Sancaktepe Station. Republican People’s Party MP for Istanbul Gokhan Zeybek and Mayor of Sancaktepe Municipality Seyma Dogucu participated in the ceremony as well. The trio inspected the construction field before the ceremony. Mayor Imamoglu thanked to everyone who contributed to the project during the speech he delivered in the ceremony.
 
“ISTANBUL DOES NOT HAVE ONLY ONE AGENDA”

Mayor Imamoglu indicated that public transportation is one of the most important agendas of Istanbul and said, “Our city has many agendas. I wish I would have been able to call an agenda as the “most important” but it is not so. We have an agenda that is the earthquake risk which is at a different stage and crucial for all of us. There is refugee issue that should not be overlooked by the society because it is one of the most important issues of our city and our country. We do not have the luxury to say in this city, “we have only one issue of primary importance so let us focus on that”. Mayor Imamoglu emphasised that they have created various solutions for public transportation and said “Metro is our priority. It is a national issue to bring metro in Istanbul to the highest possible level. We have to bring hundreds of kilometres of metro to this city. I would like to thank every single Mayor since Dear Sozen who contributed to this city. We have a claim: “To do more” and this should be the claim of our successors and this is why we said that “everything is going to be better” we did not say, “Everything has been better”. The logic behind the motto is very clear: say, “Everything is going to be better” every morning you wake up so you can improve yourself to do more. Whenever you say that “everything was so good” then it means that is over because you do not have something to achieve left.”

“TODAY IS THE DAY TO SERVE”
Mayor Imamoglu indicated that there were eight metro line halted when he took the office and added that they recommenced a second line after Umraniye-Goztepe Metro Line. Mayor Imamoglu said, “We are recommencing another metro line today and this line is an important line. I underlined the importance of this line during the speeches I delivered in this region. Today is the day to serve. My friends put so much effort into creating a financial resource for this project to recommence. This line was halted for two years, we restarted the process by creating a financial resource for this project, and it is going to prevail with the contribution of our courageous constructors. We want this project to finish as soon as possible, with the help of Allah. Economy is going through a difficult process not just in our country but also in the whole world. Financing is in a worse condition now than it was two years ago. It is important that German Deutsche Bank trusted this project and contributed to the process. I would like to thank them for their cooperation and collaboration.”

“POWER AND POTENTIAL OF ISTANBUL IS UNIQUE”

Mayor Imamoglu said, “Power and potential of Istanbul is unique. World stops but Istanbul do not stop. Istanbul is the centre of the World. It is not the fact that applies to this very day but it has been the fact for the past thousands of years. It has been the fact for the past, it is the fact in this very day and it is going to be the fact in the future as well. We have to act accordingly and support each other. We have to act together. Hearts of every single one of 16 million residents of Istanbul should go out to Istanbul. We need to make right decisions and we need to cooperate in making these right decisions. There is no distinction in between Metropolitan Municipality or District Municipality or Central Government in such a situation. None of these is an obstacle for this kind of agendas. Everyone should act in together with a helpful state to achieve success. We are ready for this. Whoever refrains from this, we are ready to do what is necessary to get him back. To be clearer, we see ourselves as the most courageous institution in cooperating. We treat everyone the same whichever institute or political office it is. We believe that the trust and appreciation towards us is corresponding to our tolerance, indulgence and feeling of unification, we presented. At this point signatures are appended and we celebrate this day with the cooperation of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, contractors, Ankara and financial institutions. Everyone is going to applaud and it is this simple.”

“PUBLIC IS THE OWNER OF EVERY SERVICE”

Mayor Imamoglu emphasised that the owner of a provided service is neither the mayor of the relevant municipality nor the ruling party of that term and added “The owner of a provided service is the state, the public and the people. In other words, you are just the mediator that succeeded in achieving the goal at that time. I am a mediator today but someone else can be in my position in the future. We can take pride in our successes but let us not say, “We own them”. Let us all know our place. This is why neither a party nor the person in office owns any project. It was our duty to complete the task with the best possible means and we did so. In this very project, we are going to introduce a contemporary transportation vehicle to our people and it is as simple as that. No one is ever going to hear from us saying “Our party’s project, my project, I did it”. There is no such thing “We all did it together, we did it together with the community”. Our plans are not limited with just metro. We are going to fasten the procedure of renewing feeder transportation methods and bus fleet of BRT (Metrobus). We are going to shorten some of the lines especially the ones owned by IETT (Istanbul Electric Tramway and Tunnel Establishments) so they can become express lines to support other main lines. We are also planning to concentrate on maritime transportation so we can make transfer points that connect other means of transportation more active. In other words, we are going to create a fully integrated system in Istanbul. Public transportation is a delicate and tense matter. We cannot claim “We sorted it out completely” but we can make it more convenient and more contemporary so the community can use it with joy rather than discomfort. The community spends a lot of time in transportation on their daily lives and we are planning to change it so people can spend their times at their workplace or social lives instead of public transportation vehicles.” Mayor Imamoglu shared some technical information about the line and pressed the button with the committee that accompanied him in the ceremony. Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is delivered to the construction field with a ceremony.

64, 800 PASSENGERS ARE GOING TO BE CARRIED IN ONE DIRECTION IN AN HOUR

The metro line is expected to ease the traffic congestion on the Anatolian side of the city and lower the passage of vehicles in between two sides of the city. The relevant line will have eight stations and going to be 10, 9 km long with 16 minutes journey time. Metro Line is going to carry 64, 800 passengers in an hour in one direction. Metro Lien is going to go through Cekmekoy, Sancaktepe and Sultanbeyli districts. Cekmekoy-Sancaktepe-Sultanbeyli Metro Line is the continuation of Uskudar-Umraniye-Cekmekoy Metro Line and when it is recommissioned, it is going to be integrated with various means of transportation such as Marmaray and BRT (Metrobus) Lines, Sultanbeyli-Kurtkoy High Speed Train and Yenidogan-Imes-Soyak Yenisehir Metro Lines that are on the stage where their construction drawings are completed and Hastane-Tasdelen-Yenidogan Metro Line, Dudullu-Bostanci Metro Line and Umraniye-Atasehir-Goztepe Metro Lines that are on the stage of construction.
 
DOORS THAT WILL PREVENT FALLING ON TRACKS ARE GOING TO BE INSTALLED

The Project started on May 2017 and halted by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on 29 December 2017. The construction restarted on March 2018 but construction site fell into silence on October 2018 because of the setbacks on progress-billing payments. The project restarted after when Deutsche Bank agreed to provide loan for the project in November 2019. The project is expected to be operational by the last quarter of 2022. Main line tunnels of the metro system are going to be opened with TBM, platforms of the six stations are going to be opened with New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) and ticket halls are going to be on cut and cover basis. Platforms and ticket halls of the remaining two stations are going to be completely on cut and cover basis. Metro line is going to be constructed with the latest technology with “fully automated driverless metro” and “screen doors” at platforms that prevent people from falling to the tracks. Fully automatic mechanical car park with a capacity of 336 cars is going to be constructed at Samandira Station to encourage the people to use metro.

Number of Visitors of Our Renewed Website is Increased 4 Times

Metro Istanbul renewed its website by taking user habits into account. Number of visitors of www.metro.istanbul is increased 4 times with its ...

read more