12 new reserve areas identified in Istanbul

Minister Mehmet Özhaseki spoke about earthquake housing, on-site transformation, and the urban transformation plan during a program he attended on CNN Türk.

"THE NUMBER OF MOST AT-RISK HOUSING UNITS IS 600 THOUSAND"

Key highlights from Özhaseki's speech are as follows:

"(Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes) We faced a massive disaster. We encountered two major earthquakes nine hours apart. We saw that 680 thousand housing units were heavily damaged and 170 thousand workplaces were destroyed. Our main goal is to settle earthquake victims into their homes. We will finish the earthquake housing rapidly. We are now building all village houses out of steel. Companies are delivering them in three to eight months.

An earthquake is expected in the Marmara region. Experts say the time is up, and an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude is expected. If the intervals are to continue this way, it appears the time has run out. What humanity must do is see the situation, take a stance, and reinforce their housing. We have no other way.

There are around 6 million housing units in Istanbul. There are around 1.5 million workplaces. 1.5 million are at risk. The number of those that are most at-risk is 600 thousand. These are in places that are said to require urgent demolition. We have changed every article in the urban transformation law that was obstructing progress."

"WE WILL BUILD NEARLY 1 MILLION HOUSING UNITS"

"We launched the 'Half is on Us' campaign. We announced a 1.5 million support package. We provided 750 thousand liras as a grant. We are providing 100 thousand liras in evacuation support. It will start at 5,500 liras for 10 years, with the first year interest-free. So far, 1 million 230 thousand people have applied to us. We told 71 thousand people whose buildings have all reached an agreement to start the transformation immediately. It is a three-year campaign. We established a special urban transformation unit for Istanbul.

I believe that 350 thousand 400 housing units will be transformed through the campaign. We have identified 12 locations in Istanbul as reserve areas. They are classified as pasture lands. There are lands that have lost their forest status and public lands. The military has vacated them and is not using them. There will be 450-500 thousand ready-to-use housing units that we will build in these areas. One of them has Esenler and Eyüp in its vicinity. One is around Tuzla. In the first stage, we will move the most at-risk areas here. We will build nearly 1 million housing units. We will finish these in a few years."

News Source: 12punto