Opening Event of the “İstanbul Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan Second Phase Project”, Largest-Budget SUMP Project Financed Under SOPT Was Held
The
opening event of Istanbul SUMP Phase II Implementation Plan Project, which is
being implemented under the Sectoral Opreational Programme for Trasnport within
the framework of Türkiye-EU financial cooperation and of which Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality is the beneficiary, took place on December 12, 2023,
in Istanbul.
In the meeting where all stakeholders were represented at the highest
level, Director General of EU Affairs and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of
Transport and Infrastructure and Head of Operating Structure, Mr. Burak Aykan,
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, Head of the
Delegation of EU to Türkiye Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer Landrut, and on behalf of
the contractor company Administrative Director of GIZ International Services,
Mr. Siegfried Leffler made opening speeches.
Initiated with the slogan "We are Walking
to the Future for Livable Istanbul", in the event where more than 300
Istanbul citizens attended, regulations aimed at creating low emission zones
that will reduce carbon emissions and air pollution in the central regions of
the city, projects that will develop the maritime transportation network, safe
pedestrian and bicycle paths, bus priority lanes and pilot projects are presented.
During the opening speeches of the event, Mr. Burak Aykan provided information
about the projects implemented in the IPA I period and expressed their
initiatives to maintain support on SUMP projects, which started to be supported
for the first time in the IPA II period, in the IPA III period as well. He
emphasized that the Istanbul SUMP project, with a budget of 5.5 million euros,
is the largest-budget SUMP project financed within the program
IMM President Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu expressed that
preventing motor vehicles in a very valuable region that is the front window of
our city, such as the ’Historical Peninsula’, and bringing together the planned
transportation investments to our people within a strategic framework, is built
on the basis of the “Istanbul Sustainable Urban Mobilitiy Plan”.
During his speech on behalf of the EU which provided co-financing to the project, Head of the EU Delegation to Türkiye Mr. Ambassador Meyer-Landrut drew attention to the climate crisis. Mr. Meyer-Landrut indicated that transportation increases carbon dioxide emissions worldwide and SUMPs and smart mobility plans will help overcoming this problem, and expressed that he is pleased that İstanbul is also a part of this.