European bank co-finances Istanbul’s metro expansion

ISTANBUL

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has said it is providing an 88.3 million euro loan to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to finance the expansion of the city’s metro line. 

Istanbul is among the fastest growing cities in the world, with a population exceeding 14 million. It is expected to overtake Greater London and Moscow as the most populous urban agglomeration in Europe by 2018, the EBRD said in a statement on June 29.

To meet the constantly growing demand for public transport, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality aims to expand the existing 145 km metro network to 450 km by 2019 and to 650 km by 2030, the EBRD said.

It added that the municipality plans to build the Ataköy-İkitelli Metro Line on the European side of the city, which will be 13.4 km long with 12 stations running from north to south, linking with six main lines of the city’s public transport system. The new line is expected to go into service in 2019, said the EBRD statement. 

The total project cost is 338.3 million euros, to which the EBRD is contributing parallel financing of 250 million euros, it said, adding that EBRD and EIB loans will finance civil works and electro-mechanical installations. 

The EBRD started investing in Turkey in 2009 and currently operates from offices in Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep. The country is a top destination for the EBRD’s financing, with 1.9 billion euros invested in 2016 alone.