December 11, 2020. Residents of the Turkish capital Ankara will enjoy cleaner air thanks to a €57.1 million loan by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) extended to the city’s public transport company EGO to replace polluting diesel buses with 254 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and install a CNG filling station.
The agreement confirmed Ankara as the 44th member of EBRD Green Cities, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s flagship urban sustainability programme.
A Memorandum of Understanding was formalized in a virtual meeting between the Mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavas, the EBRD’s Managing Director for Turkey, Arvid Tuerkner, and Sustainable Infrastructure Group Managing Director Nandita Parshad.
Mayor Yavas said: “We work to invest in infrastructure projects to increase efficiency and improve the quality of lives, paying a particular attention to public health. We are pleased with the EBRD support and are looking forward to working together on future projects.”
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, with a population of 5.7 million, is the second largest city in Turkey after Istanbul and the country’s political and economic hub. Its population is growing at about two per cent a year, putting pressure on urban transport. Recognizing the impact of poor air quality and the global effects of carbon emissions, the city is developing a greener future by investing in its public transport system and working on a comprehensive strategy to improve its environmental performance.
