Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, which always keeps its vehicle fleet used in public transport young in order to provide the best, safe and comfortable service to citizens, has put 58 new vehicles into service. Since 2019, Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality has put a total of 209 vehicles into service to be used in public transport, making it one of the municipalities with the youngest public transport vehicle fleet in Türkiye.
Carrying an average of 33 thousand passengers daily on 220 lines with 1,394 trips, Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality renews its vehicle fleet to serve its 20 districts, making public transport safer, higher quality and more comfortable day by day. Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, which is one of the youngest municipalities in terms of the age of its public transport fleet among metropolitan municipalities in Türkiye, has put a total of 209 new vehicles into service since 2019, including the 58 public transport vehicles it has put into service today.
Of the 58 buses, 12 buses with a capacity of 26 seated and 76 standing passengers and a length of 12 metres were purchased at a unit price of 3 million 750 thousand TL, 36 buses with a capacity of 25 seated and 36 standing passengers and a length of 8.5 metres were purchased at a unit price of 2 million 750 thousand TL and 10 buses with a capacity of 55 seated passengers and a length of 12 metres suitable for districts and intercity travel were purchased at a unit cost of 5 million 734 thousand TL.
PUBLIC BENEFIT OF 1 BILLION TL
The Metropolitan Municipality, which has incorporated 209 new vehicles since 2019 with new purchases, has invested approximately 500 million liras in vehicles purchased for use in public transport. With the orders and payments made in advance, vehicles with a current value of 1.5 billion liras were purchased at a price of 1 third of the price, providing public benefit.
"WE ARE THINKING FOR BALIKESİR"
Stating that Balıkesir is the largest city in the region in terms of area; it is 2 times the size of Bursa, 6 times the size of Kocaeli and 3 times the size of Istanbul, Yücel Yılmaz, Mayor of Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, said; When we took office in 2019, we had lines serving with renewed vehicles in 2014. We have planned how we can make a safer, peaceful and comfortable journey and how we can bring this service to better points with our cooperative members and driver tradesmen without service procurement or our own property. From that day to this day, we have been thinking for Balıkesir with our smart intersections, smart signalling system and stops. At the point we have reached, we have renewed 209 vehicles in our city, we have put hundreds of smart stops into service. We have reduced waiting times despite the traffic load and the number of vehicles with green lines, smart intersections and smart signalling. With our air-conditioned, comfortable, environmentally friendly vehicles, our colleagues are working day and night to provide better quality service to both our students and all our citizens who benefit from public transport. Our 58 new vehicles that we have put into service will touch everyone. As we promised, our students and teachers will benefit from our public transport vehicles more economically. I would like to thank all our staff, especially our Secretary General."
MAYOR YILMAZ REQUESTED, THE AUTHORISED COMPANY PRESENTED A 30-PERSON CENRO
After his speech, Mayor Yücel Yılmaz was presented a plaque by the representative of the authorised company. Mayor Yılmaz requested from the company representative who gave him a plaque to give a gift to Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality and the representative of Centro Brand, a vehicle with a capacity of 13 seated and 17 standing passengers was presented as a gift.
"A VERY GOOD SERVICE IN THE NAME OF MUNICIPALISM"
Stating that they have realised a very nice opening on behalf of municipal services, Governor of Balıkesir İsmail Ustaoğlu said; "Balıkesir is a metropolitan city with an area of 14 thousand 600 square kilometres, a road network of 7 thousand 500 kilometres and a population of 1 million 260 thousand. It is not easy to bring the services of our government to the remotest corners of such a city. Municipalities have basic services; sewerage, drinking water, parks, etc. and the most important one is transportation service. Nowadays, we see together how important time is in today's conditions required by our age. In this sense, the transport service provided by our municipalities is of great importance. We are a member of a civilisation that says 'the place you cannot reach is not yours'. These 58 vehicles that we will put into service will be put into the service of our citizens. Today, we are experiencing the happiness of seeing a good result of these services on behalf of local administration in our city. I would like to thank our Mayor of Metropolitan Municipality Yücel Yılmaz and everyone who contributed, and I wish it to be auspicious."
"LET THE CHANGE IN BALIKESİR SET AN EXAMPLE"
Speaking on behalf of Iveco, company official Sedat Çınar said: "I wish that this change we see in Balıkesir will set an example for many cities. It is a serious breakthrough, a serious development. We wish the new environmentally friendly buses to be beneficial for Balıkesir. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed."
