Municipal investments carry on at full throttle
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Anatolia News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 13, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Those living in or visiting Istanbul now have the chance to download a new guidebook for the city on their mobile phones. ’Pocket Book City Guide Ğ IstanBUL’ includes information about 200,000 landmarks and points of interest in the financial and cultural capital of the country
Istanbul residents can now download to their mobile phones a new guidebook for the city called "Pocket Book City Guide Ğ IstanBUL," which included information about 200,000 points of interest.
Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş said technology is rapidly developing but the municipality is trying to follow all the technological progress to be one of the world’s best municipalities when it comes to using technology.
"People can download the city guide to their mobile phones and there is no payment required. We have gathered all the basic information on the city and made it easy to download," he said.
Detailed guide
The electronic guide is published and updated by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Information and Technology Department. The guide finds locations and how to reach an address by giving the neighborhood, avenue and street names and directions. Pharmacies, culture centers, theaters, shopping malls, hotels, car parks, police stations and bus stops are included in the guide.
Topbaş said the municipality has 2 million pieces of data about the city that will included in the system soon and accessible online.
"Those with old mobile phones will also be able to reach the data because the system which works online can also be reached without Internet connection," Topbaş said. "The system recognizes the location of the user and describes the destination with a graphic and in script."
Next step for the municipality is to add mass transit information. Once completed, details about schedules and routes for busses, metros and ferries will be available.
Topbaş said the service does not exist anywhere else in the world.
One of many projects
Topbaş said IstanBUL is just one of many municipality projects. "With this system we offer the residents and visitors a simple way to access information about the city and make people’s lives easier."
He said the software belongs to the municipality and for now the system is limited to clients of telecommunication company Turkcell.
The municipality also has the navigation system for cars, he said.
After introducing IstanBUL, Topbaş and Hakkı Tok, chairman of the Information and Technology Department, demonstrated how the system works with mobile phones.
They showed how, after the guide is downloaded to a mobile phone from www.ibb.gov.tr/istanbul, it can be will be controlled through selections made on the phone. A İstanBUL shortcut should be clicked and depending on the phone model, the guide will start working between 4 and 100 seconds.
There are 68,000 avenues and streets and 31,000 important places around the city in the guide, topbaş said, adding that the map will be further updated within six months.
After the demonstration, Topbaş announced that the formal openings of the Sütlüce Culture and Congress Center and the Kağıthane-Piyalepaşa Tunnel are set for Saturday and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to attend.
"It is impossible to build new traffic lanes because of the many historic sites around Istanbul’s city center and the population density. New traffic lanes require a big budget and people in some cases might object to road construction, causing difficulties and delays. That’s why the municipality has identified 33 locations for tunnels after investigating the topographical structure of the city. When they are completed, Istanbul will have a 142-kilometer tunnel way," Topbaş said.
Ongoing constructions
Construction of four tunnels is ongoing already and a fifth tunnel connecting Kağıthane and Piyalepaşa districts has been completed. The distance between the two districts will now take three minutes.
Topbaş said the tunnels would solve problems at Istanbul traffic’s crucial points and eventually there would be an electronic system to monitor the tunnels.
The latest municipality project is a tunnel to connect Beşiktaş to the Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy. It will take 17 minutes from one point to the other, Topbaş said, but adding that they do not know when the project will be launched.
"The tunnel opening will be Saturday at 11:00 a.m. in Kağıthane," he said, adding that on the same day the there will be the ceremony for the Sütlüce Culture and Congress Center, before the center will open its doors for the 5th World Water Forum on March 16.
Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş said technology is rapidly developing but the municipality is trying to follow all the technological progress to be one of the world’s best municipalities when it comes to using technology.
"People can download the city guide to their mobile phones and there is no payment required. We have gathered all the basic information on the city and made it easy to download," he said.
Detailed guide
The electronic guide is published and updated by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Information and Technology Department. The guide finds locations and how to reach an address by giving the neighborhood, avenue and street names and directions. Pharmacies, culture centers, theaters, shopping malls, hotels, car parks, police stations and bus stops are included in the guide.
Topbaş said the municipality has 2 million pieces of data about the city that will included in the system soon and accessible online.
"Those with old mobile phones will also be able to reach the data because the system which works online can also be reached without Internet connection," Topbaş said. "The system recognizes the location of the user and describes the destination with a graphic and in script."
Next step for the municipality is to add mass transit information. Once completed, details about schedules and routes for busses, metros and ferries will be available.
Topbaş said the service does not exist anywhere else in the world.
One of many projects
Topbaş said IstanBUL is just one of many municipality projects. "With this system we offer the residents and visitors a simple way to access information about the city and make people’s lives easier."
He said the software belongs to the municipality and for now the system is limited to clients of telecommunication company Turkcell.
The municipality also has the navigation system for cars, he said.
After introducing IstanBUL, Topbaş and Hakkı Tok, chairman of the Information and Technology Department, demonstrated how the system works with mobile phones.
They showed how, after the guide is downloaded to a mobile phone from www.ibb.gov.tr/istanbul, it can be will be controlled through selections made on the phone. A İstanBUL shortcut should be clicked and depending on the phone model, the guide will start working between 4 and 100 seconds.
There are 68,000 avenues and streets and 31,000 important places around the city in the guide, topbaş said, adding that the map will be further updated within six months.
After the demonstration, Topbaş announced that the formal openings of the Sütlüce Culture and Congress Center and the Kağıthane-Piyalepaşa Tunnel are set for Saturday and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to attend.
"It is impossible to build new traffic lanes because of the many historic sites around Istanbul’s city center and the population density. New traffic lanes require a big budget and people in some cases might object to road construction, causing difficulties and delays. That’s why the municipality has identified 33 locations for tunnels after investigating the topographical structure of the city. When they are completed, Istanbul will have a 142-kilometer tunnel way," Topbaş said.
Ongoing constructions
Construction of four tunnels is ongoing already and a fifth tunnel connecting Kağıthane and Piyalepaşa districts has been completed. The distance between the two districts will now take three minutes.
Topbaş said the tunnels would solve problems at Istanbul traffic’s crucial points and eventually there would be an electronic system to monitor the tunnels.
The latest municipality project is a tunnel to connect Beşiktaş to the Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy. It will take 17 minutes from one point to the other, Topbaş said, but adding that they do not know when the project will be launched.
"The tunnel opening will be Saturday at 11:00 a.m. in Kağıthane," he said, adding that on the same day the there will be the ceremony for the Sütlüce Culture and Congress Center, before the center will open its doors for the 5th World Water Forum on March 16.