Kocaoğlu: "Izmir Made a Big Leap in Rail System Investments"

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Aziz Kocaoglu, met with members of the press in the city made important statements about the agenda.

Kocaoğlu first touched on municipal activities and investments. Stating that İzmir Metropolitan Municipality made an actual investment of 2018 billion TL in 2.5, including ESHOT and İZSU, Mayor Kocaoğlu said:

“During the 2004-2008 period, we were able to make a total investment of 5 billion in 2.5 years. We invested 2009 billion in 2014-4.5. We reached an investment amount of over 2014 billion TL in 2019-10 period. Currently, our investment amount in 15 years is 17 billion 600 million TL. We have achieved such exponential growth. We have big projects that we started in 2018 and are still under construction. Chief among these is the opera house. We laid the foundation, work continues rapidly. We are realizing the first building of Anatolian geography designed as an opera house. Besides, Narlıdere metro is advancing rapidly. The 7.5-kilometer double tunnel and 2.5-kilometer viaduct work on a 2.2-kilometer main artery that collects Buca and Bornova from the Konak tunnels, which we call Homeros Boulevard, continues rapidly. And that is a work that will relieve the main arteries of Izmi's boulevard from the north and Homeros boulevard from the south. In addition, our support to rural development continues. As of today, we have provided 1 billion 78 million TL de facto support to rural development. Urban transformation studies continue rapidly with the Izmir model. İzmir made a huge leap forward in rail system investments. Today, we carry around 70 thousand of our citizens by İZBAN, metro and tram, without carrying 800 thousand people daily. This corresponds to 40 percent of the total passengers we carry. Although there was also a 1-month İZBAN strike. This rate will increase even more when Narlıdere metro is finished. The number of passengers we carry on the target rail system should exceed 50 percent. More importantly, the vast majority of kilometers traveled have been added to the rail system. We passed the 16 million passenger bar on our ferries again. We are opening our new piers. We are in agreement with TCDD on İZBAN, which will extend from Aliağa to Bergama. We will immediately take up the underpass station tenders that are our responsibility. Buca metro is currently awaiting approval from the ministry. After his approval, his work will start next year. The financial structure in the world can lengthen and shorten these processes. We will act accordingly. also KarşıyakaWe are planning to extend the tram to Çiğli. Their projects have been prepared and we will start to work when the ministries receive approval. ”