New city construction to begin in six months

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

City planners have begun drafting a master plan for a new city in Istanbul that is expected to become home to 1.5 million people with an eye to launching construction on the site within half a year, according to officials.

The Turkish government has completed the preparations for the new urban area, which will be constructed on the Black Sea

coast on the European side of Istanbul, opening the way for private companies and related institutions to begin making the new city a reality.

The plans, which will be prepared by a consortium consisting of Turkey’s Dome architecture company, U.S. firm HOK and U.K. firm Buro Happold, will be completed within six months. The firms will prepare the master plan of the urban area, as well as a model project, videos and animation for presentations to relevant institutions.

The borders of the city were defined by a protocol signed Dec. 24, 2012, by the Turkish Transportation Ministry, the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry, the Housing Settlement Administration (TOKİ) and the Emlak Konut real estate investment trust (REIT), which is a subsidiary of TOKİ.

The new city will consist of four different settlements with specified urban functions.

The government has said it plans to make the city into a health and health tourism center, and health investments in terms of a biomedical scientific park, integrated health campuses with accommodation facilities and research and development centers are anticipated to elevate the brand value of the city as a global health hub.

The third Istanbul airport, which expected to be built by 2017, will be in the vicinity of the new city. An Olympic village that is part of Istanbul’s prospective effort to land the 2020 Olympic Games is also planned for the region. After the Games, the area is slated to be repurposed as university and urban service areas.