The bus station, known as the Büyük İstanbul Otogarı or the Esenler Otogarı, is located in the city’s Bayrampaşa district and has major issues in terms of security and cleanliness, along with legal and financial problems. Many of these problems have persisted for years. Passengers, many of whom have no choice but to travel through this station, frequently complain about its deficiencies.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, BİOİAŞ head Ahmet Yalamanoğlu said his company plans to find a solution to problems faced by the Esenler bus station as well as to meet increasing demand. Drawing attention to the fact that İstanbul is a city with a high population growth rate, he said İstanbul was home to around 8 million people when the company constructed the Esenler bus station in 1994 but that this number has grown to 15 million since.
“We have until 2019 to find a solution to the bus station’s problems. Until then, we have two alternatives: We will either purchase this station from the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality to fix problematic points or we will construct a new bus station along the TEM highway. Of course, this is only possible if the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the Bayrampaşa Municipality also agree on that. Otherwise, we will have to wait until our contract to run the station ends in 2019,” he said. BİOİAŞ has been overseeing the station’s administration and collecting all the income it generates since 1994, in accordance with a build-operate-transfer model. Yalamanoğlu added that he does not think the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality will oppose the privatization of the bus station.
