IMM President and Nation Alliance's Vice President candidate Ekrem İmamoğluspoke at the ceremony, where 92 of the 25 new metrobuses purchased with the municipality's own resources made their maiden voyages. Pointing out that the IETT fleet is rejuvenating despite the obstacles, İmamoğlu said, “The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council received unanimous approval for the purchase of 300 metrobuses... But unfortunately; The foreign borrowing approval of this investment was delayed by the Presidency. No investment program has been taken since then. In other words, it was not deemed appropriate by the Presidency to meet this urgent need of Istanbul and to solve the problem of Istanbulites. Reminding that he damaged the transmission line belonging to İSKİ during the TEİAŞ excavation, İmamoğlu said, “I am following the statements of the group vice chairman of that party in the İBB Assembly with a smile. In other words, I will say there is a child's mind saying how can I share such an accident right away, but I don't. Because children's minds are much higher than adults. We learn a lot from children. I will continue to laugh and follow politicians who make such statements and those who are outdated. After that, the era of investments that would harm the public in Istanbul came to an end. It will be over in Turkey very soon. No one should be in any doubt about that.”
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) continues to rejuvenate the metrobus vehicle fleet with its own resources. With the addition of 2023 high passenger capacity in 92, 252 vehicles have been added to the BRT line in the last two years. IMM President and Nation Alliance's Vice President candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, . 300 of the 300 vehicles put into service within the scope of '92 Projects in 25 Days' attended the field launch ceremony. In the program held at Edirnekapı Metrobus Garage, İmamoğlu briefly said:
THE FLEET IS GETTING YOUNG
“İETT carries out 55 thousand different bus services and 6.300 metrobus services per day. 1 billion 250 million trips are made annually in Istanbul. We can say that our Metrobus line is the most dynamo in this regard. Our 684 metrobus vehicles provide service. In 2023, we will bring a new domestic and powerful metrobus with a high passenger capacity of 92 to Istanbul. Thus, the number of Metrobuses that have just joined the fleet in the last two years will have reached 252. We will have renewed 40 percent of the Metrobus fleet in this period. Metrobus fleet age will be reduced from 2023 to 11 in 8. Thanks to the vehicles we will shift from the Metrobus line to the international lines, we will have the chance to make more trips with more buses on the lines that are needed.”
OUR PRESIDENTIAL PRESIDENCY WAS NOT CONSIDERED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF ISTANBULERS
We bring all of these vehicles to Istanbul by using our own resources. As soon as he took office, he determined the urgent need, aging, and quickly received unanimous approval from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Assembly for the purchase of 2020 metrobuses with foreign borrowing in November 300. The resolution in this assembly was unanimous. Our aim here was actually to meet the need for metrobus at once, to relieve Istanbul in one pen, and to eliminate other deficiencies with the investments we made from our own resources. However, what is written; The foreign borrowing approval of this investment was delayed by the Presidency. No investment program has been taken since then. In other words, it was not deemed appropriate by the Presidency for us to meet this urgent need of Istanbul and to solve the problems of the people of Istanbul.”
“WE ARE NEVER STAYING INTO OBSTACLES”
“Of course there is an urgent need. As we have eliminated attempts to tie our hands everywhere, we said 'we will solve it with our own resources' and added our new Metrobuses to our fleet. Despite the efforts to prevent it, we continued to produce for Istanbul. We never get hung up on obstacles. Very soon, you should also calculate, when these disabled people get up, what jobs we can do in beautiful Istanbul, how fast we can do, how we can do much better than what we did in Istanbul for Turkey.”
EXACTLY 63 MILLION EURO…
“Recently, an image has been on the agenda through social media posts over the press, which is directly affiliated with a political party. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is breaking up metrobuses. However, let us remind you again that the vehicle in those images should never leave our nation's memory. Unfortunately, the buses bought for 63 million euros in their period are unfortunately the buses that were bought without complying with the road conditions of Istanbul. And unfortunately before us are the buses that have been left to rot. Unfortunately, some part of it, even because that company is closed and does not produce those buses anymore, unfortunately solves the needs of some parts by breaking the buses. As required by law, we have fulfilled our responsibility by contacting relevant institutions for the evaluation of vehicles that have completed their economic life.”
“WE TRIED TO USE 30 OF THESE TOOLS”
“Even from here, those who pursue a perception like 'how can I be a partisan', 'how can I scribble the four-year service and environment of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on all kinds of four-year matters' hit the wall again. I refer those who make such attempts to the conscience of my fellow countrymen and citizens, and the political cadres. Although the experts stated that they were not suitable for the road conditions in Istanbul in the past period they mentioned, these vehicles caused a great public loss. We still tried to use 30 of these tools. Since the manufacturer company went bankrupt, as I just said, we use ten 9 vehicles for the purpose of using spare parts. The maintenance and repair of these vehicles, which break down frequently, is also carried out by the employees of our skilful IETT, our ancient institution IETT. Good luck to them too.”
“I FOLLOW THE SMART EXPLANATIONS FROM HERE WITH A Laugh
“We want a period that produces jobs, does business, runs to the service of its people and speaks about its business. People who slander the work done, who are elected or appointed, who make a habit of lying and slandering, are really of no use to this nation. These people, who see such institutions as their own property and have the character to do anything to make it theirs, have only one benefit for themselves. It is of no use to the nation. The mayor of a district who says, with propaganda, that Istanbul is taking water, over the İSKİ pipe, which TEİAŞ exploded in a work accident. I am laughingly following the statements of the group vice chairman of that party in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Assembly. In other words, I will say there is a child's mind saying how can I share such an accident right away, but I don't. Because children's minds are much higher than adults. We learn a lot from children. I will continue to laugh and follow politicians who make such statements and those who are outdated. After that, the era of investments that would harm the public in Istanbul came to an end. It will be over in Turkey very soon. No one should be in any doubt about that.”