Construction work on Istanbul’s new Halic metro bridge across the Golden Horn, which will link Taksim with Yenikapi on the Sea of Marmara, is scheduled for completion in October 2013. Both sides of the bridge will also be open to pedestrian use – and a metro station in the middle of the bridge is set to become a big staging post for camera-carrying visitors. At Yenikapi, passengers will be able to transfer to the Marmaray and Aksaray-Airport light metro lines.
The Taksim – Yenkapi metro line is just one of several major infrastructural projects that are planned to alleviate the traffic congestion in Istanbul, which has already grown to a major metropolis of 15 million people and is the third largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and Moscow.
A road tunnel linking the European and Asian sides of the city is also being built under the Bosphorus, for completion in two year’s time, and a third bridge across the Bosphorus is also planned, north of the existing two and nearer the Black Sea.
