Mayor promises cable car over Istanbul’s Bosphorus

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş reveals an ambitious transportation plan that includes an exceptional cable car line over Istanbul’s Bosphorus.DAILY NEWS photo

The Istanbul mayor has revealed an assertive transportation plan that includes an exceptional cable car line over Istanbul’s Bosphorus. In addition to the new cable car, passengers will be able to pass onto “metrobus” stations that run between the two sides of Istanbul, forming a huge net of land transportation.

The plan also includes a 16-station subway line from Üsküdar to Sancaktepe on the Asian side of the city.

Mayor Kadir Topbaş told journalists on Feb. 12 that the line would then connect to Mecidiyeköy on the European side through a cable car line.

Construction work on the Üsküdar-Sancaktepe subway line began Feb. 12 with a ceremony attended by Topbaş. A special team aims to dig a record 22 meters daily, before the line opens to public use in 38 months. The line is expected to be used by 58,000 people hourly, and around 700,000 daily.

New subway line

The line will constitute the second subway line on the Asian side, complementing the Kadıköy-Kartal line that was completed in 45 months. If the planned 38 month target is achieved, the municipality will be breaking another record, Topbaş said.

After the work is completed it is predicted that a trip from Ümraniye to Taksim will take 44 minutes, while it will take 71 minutes to reach Atatürk Airport.

Topbaş previously described the project, which is officially calculated to cost 564 million euros, as “history in the making.”

“There are no other municipalities in the world that build their own subway lines,” Topbaş said. “We are building our own. By 2016, 7 million people will be using the railways, which the Üsküdar-Çekmeköy line will be a part of.” The second part of the project, the cable car line, will stretch from Altunizade to Mecidiyeköy. Details of the project remain unknown, though it set to start once a certain stage is reached in the building of the subway line.

Topbaş said the cable car line would carry touristic value as well as pragmatic value.

“Someone coming from Çekmeköy will be able to cross over to Mecidiyeköy through this tramway line,” Topbaş said. “These aren’t dreams.”

However, the plans for the Bosphorus cable car project are still in the early stages and no concrete plans have yet been generated, the municipality’s press advisor Selçuk Fıçıcı told the Daily News on the phone yesterday. “These are just preliminary ideas,” Fıçıcı said. “We will start working on them.”