Istanbul mayor arrives to warm welcome

Inaugurates new waste management system, hails Lahore as second home.

LAHORE:

The Mayor of Istanbul Dr Kadir Tobpas was given a warm welcome here on Sunday as he arrived for a two-day visit to inaugurate waste management and bus transport projects that are being conducted in collaboration with Turkish companies.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony for the new solid waste management system at the Town Hall, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that he hoped that the new system would revive Lahore’s beauty and that it could later be introduced in other cities

He said that the same model would be replicated in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Peshawar and Karachi and scores of clean cities like Istanbul would emerge in Pakistan.

Dr Tobpas said that the project would give Lahore a clean environment and a healthy atmosphere. He said that the projects with the Punjab government were not commercial ventures but aimed at serving the Pakistani people. That was why the Turkish companies had reduced the cost of the project, he said.

He said that Istanbul produces 15,000 tonnes of garbage a day which it recycles or uses to produce electricity. He said that Istanbul was cleaner than New York.

Dr Tophas drove a cleaning truck, with the chief minister in the passenger seat, after cutting a ribbon to inaugurate the project. He earlier also inaugurated a monument at Istanbul Chowk in front of Town Hall, and is to inaugurate the Bus Rapid Transit system as well as a replica of the Blue Mosque dome in Valencia Town.

The chief minister said that this was the first comprehensive solid waste management project in Pakistan. He said Lahore produced more than 5,000 tonnes of garbage every day.

Sharif said that during his first term as chief minister in 1998, he had made plans with a French company for a solid waste management system, but his government was toppled and the project was shelved.

He said that he was pleased to see this project inaugurated 13 years later with the cooperation of the brotherly Islamic country of Turkey. He said that Pakistan and Turkey had forged strong bonds and that was why the Turkish companies involved in the project had reduced their costs. He said that when they had conducted a survey in Lahore 18 months ago of the facilities needed, they had charged the government a tenth of what they would normally charge on international tenders.

Earlier, the Istanbul mayor was welcomed upon his arrival at the airport by the chief minister. Sharif said that the visit would promote trade as well as brotherly relations between the two countries. Dr Topbas said Pakistan was his second home and he was very pleased to be in Lahore.

A Punjab Police contingent presented a guard of honour to Dr Topbas at the airport. The national anthems of Turkey and Pakistan were played while people shouted slogans for Pak-Turk friendship. The government brought in 225 folk dancers from Jhang to perform at 14 different points along the route.

Portraits of the president and prime minister of Turkey, the mayor of Istanbul, Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were displayed on main roads all over the city.

The mayor also visited a special exhibition on Turkey arranged by the Information and Culture Departments at the Lahore Museum. Members of the Turkish media in his entourage went on a shopping trip to Neela Gumbad and Anarkali.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2012.

via Diplomatic relations: Istanbul mayor arrives to warm welcome – The Express Tribune.