Ankara’s Newest Metro Line Expected to Serve 50,000 per a day

Keçiören Metro line, which cost TL 1 billion, opened in Ankara Thursday. The 9.2 km long metro line, which took almost 13 years to build, will serve 50,000 citizens on a daily basis and ease traffic congestion in the region.

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The Keçiören metro line in the Turkish capital Ankara, the construction of which lasted for more than a decade due to the sloping land and unplanned construction in the region and which saw its first test drive in August, was opened Thursday with a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. Expected to ease traffic congestion, the metro line will be toll-free until Jan. 15. With a length of over nine kilometers, the Keçiören metro line had a total cost of TL 1 billion ($276 billion), and was long awaited by Ankara residents. It has nine lines starting in Keçiören and ending at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM), a central district in the capital. The metro line will provide service for 50,000 citizens on a daily basis.

A 3.5-km metro line on the way

Minister of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication, Ahmet Arslan, also delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, and said it is important for the Keçiören Metro line to reach the AKM and to be integrated with the Batıkent rail system in Ankara, but stressed that it is of utmost importance for the metro line to provide uninterrupted service all the way to Kızılay.

Arslan noted that they will hold the bidding of the 3.5-kilometer-long section of the metro line from the AKM to Kızılay in the first quarter of this year, and that after the completion of the project within two years, they will provide the residents of Keçiören with an uninterrupted service all the way to Kızılay.

According to Arslan, the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality started the construction of the subway line with its own resources on July 15, 2003 and spent TL 306.4 million on building and construction works. After completing 43.19 percent of the project, the municipality transferred the construction of the subway line to the Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry on March 25, 2011.

With a length over 9 km, the Keçiören metro line with a cost of TL 1 billion, which long awaited by Ankara residents, has 9 lines starting in Keçiören and ending in Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM), central district in the capital. The metro line will provide service for 50,000 citizens on a daily basis