After the dinosaurs, the cable car line in Ankara also goes to waste
A liquidation decision has been made for the cable car line, which was built for 51 million liras during the term of former Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Melih Gökçek. It was stated that this cable car line was losing 9 million 300 thousand TL per day.
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Melih Gökçek's term as Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality saw a case similar to Ankapark—which was built on Atatürk Forest Farm land in 2013 at a cost of 801 million dollars, opened in 2019, but closed after only 8 months due to lack of interest and subsequently rotted away—occur with the Şentepe cable car line.
According to a report by Deniz Ayhan from Sözcü, the Şentepe-Yenimahalle cable car line, built in 2014 during the term of Metropolitan Mayor Melih Gökçek at a cost of 51 million liras, was found to be in violation of the zoning plan, and a court decision ordered its liquidation. The cable car, which was built by an Italian company and has 106 cabins with a daily capacity of 72 thousand people, was used by an average of 6 thousand people per day. Monthly expenses amounted to 10 million liras, while revenue was 700 thousand liras. This situation caused the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality to suffer losses for years.
Burak Koç, Chairman of the ABB Law and Tariffs Commission and a CHP council member, said, “The cable car is operating at 10 percent capacity. Even if there are no passengers, you have to run the system; you cannot stop it. There are personnel and electricity costs, as well as maintenance and repair expenses. It is losing at least 9 million 300 thousand liras every month. The maintenance contract has also expired. They had the cable car line built by an Italian firm, but this firm has no representation in Turkey, no office, and no personnel. When there is a malfunction, we call Italy via video call. The technical teams of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality try to fix the malfunction remotely.”
SERVED FOR 10 YEARS
For the construction of the Yenimahalle-Şentepe cable car system, 51 million 6 thousand liras were paid on May 14, 2013. This amount was equivalent to 28 million 667 thousand dollars at the currency exchange rate of that time. The cable car line entered service in March 2014. Subsequently, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Chamber of Architects, the cable car system was closed in April 2024 due to the court's decision to 'cancel the zoning plan'.
ANKAPARK WAS ALSO LEFT TO ROT
In Ankapark, one of Gökçek's 'mega projects', toys worth millions of liras were also thrown away. The field was overgrown with weeds, and game machines were piled on top of each other.