Ankara municipality to cut down 8,000 trees for additional roads passing through ODTÜ: Deputy

ANKARA

The Ankara municipality will cut down 8,000 trees for additional roads to pass through the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) campus, in a means to connect the Bilkent City Hospital to the city, the Ankara Independent Deputy Aylin Nazlıaka said on Aug. 16 in a press conference at the Turkish parliament.

“This is to cut the breath of Ankara. It means that the habitats of hundreds of types of birds and plants will be destroyed. This means an increase in air pollution and the replacement of green areas with gray structures. The ODTÜ area is such that 87 percent of its areas are forest. This road will destroy close to 24 hectares of forest land,” Nazlıaka said.

The ODTÜ campus has already seen 3,000 of its trees cut down in 2014 due to the construction of the road “1071 Malazgirt Boulevard” crossing through part of the university’s land. According to Nazlıaka, a 2.1 kilometer long new tunnel project, which again plans to pass through the ODTÜ campus, will destroy an additional 8,000 trees this time.

Nazlıaka’s comments came after the university’s rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Verşan Kök said on Aug. 15 that the new project would lead to the destruction of 24 hectares of forest land, as the municipality had plans to undertake the construction by means of a cut-and-cover method.