Gurkan Akgun, Head of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Department of Reconstruction and Urbanization, made a statement about the area that TOKI put up for sale with a tender for the housing project on the Kanal Istanbul route. Akgün said, "Applications are slowly starting to emerge and this will spread like a virus." Akgün also shared the drafts of the projects from the tender dossier.
While the objections regarding the controversial Kanal Istanbul project were continuing, it was announced that the Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ) would go out to tender to build houses in areas that were previously used as pasture and where lawsuits against zoning plans continue.
Gürkan Akgün, Head of the Department of Reconstruction and Urbanization of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), stated that TOKI will offer the pastures on the Kanal Istanbul route on October 6, and made statements on this subject.
'It will spread like a virus'
Emphasizing that 'Yenişehir', which will be built in Canal Istanbul and its surroundings, is a rent project, Akgün said, "Applications are slowly starting to emerge and this will spread like a virus."
It has been a 'building banned' area for years
Regarding the area that TOKİ put up for sale with a tender, Akgün said, “This is right next to the Sazlıdere Dam. In the drinking water basin, in the short protection belt; the building was staying in the forbidden area. This is how these places have been preserved for years," he said.
This area is still 'raw land' and 'field' in the title deed.
Reminding that the entire area was opened for construction with the zoning plans of Kanal Istanbul, Akgün said:
“This phase” of 2023 units, which is planned to be completed in May 485; 6 floors are reserved for residential and commercial use. By the way, the region is still within the 'basin border'! This area is still 'raw land' and 'field' in the title deed.
Registered in the name of TOKİ, now sold by tender
Let's remember; In 2016, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock had deemed 'appropriate' non-agricultural use of agricultural lands in this whole 'reserve structure area'. Two years later, the pasture areas, that is, the areas that we all share in common, were registered in the name of TOKİ. It is now auctioned off. Without the need to make a zoning application and turn it into a land. While the lawsuits against the zoning plans are still going on!”
'Will we be on the side of nature or concrete?'
Akgün summarized the issue as follows, stating that a choice would be made in favor of nature or concrete:
“The situation is clear; how our future will be shaped in this course is more or less clear. Will we be on the side of nature, water, soil, forest, our common public interest? Or is it concrete? The choice is simple!”
Akgün advised the citizens to visit the website of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's public information platform, Kanal.istanbul, so that they can get detailed information on this issue.
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