Having lived in Istanbul for six months and having seen its historical and aesthetic side, we thought of peeping into how this huge metropolis runs like clockwork, who manages it, and why its system could be an area of research for improving urban living in Pakistan.

Istanbul presents a fascinating and complex model of a large metropolitan city, especially regarding its efforts to manage tourism, transportation, and urban services. Its success is a mix of strong public-sector orchestration, mega-projects, and innovative use of technology, though not without significant challenges. Whether the engineering-minded leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan played a major role in reshaping the Istanbul of the 1990s into the thriving and efficient metropolis of today will be covered in the last part of the paper.

Gold hits record high in Pakistan after sharp price surge

The public sector, primarily led by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, or İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi (İBB), along with other federal bodies, helps run Istanbul as a tourist attraction, with a focus on transportation, security, and cleaning.

As regards transportation, the public sector has transformed Istanbul’s notorious traffic and transport system into a multi-layered, integrated network. The national and municipal governments have funded and built mega-projects to decongest the city and connect tourist hubs. For example, Marmaray, a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus connecting the European and Asian sides, is a state-run project critical for moving millions, including tourists. The İBB relentlessly expands the metro network, with lines now reaching key tourist areas such as the historic peninsula (Taksim, Yenikapı, and connections to Sultanahmet). The integrated municipal smart card is the backbone of public transport,........

© The Nation