istanbul metropolitan municipality

Turkey's largest city was hit with a heavy storm early on Feb. 9, with trees and roofs toppled. 

The storm began with light rain on Istanbul's European districts including Sultangazi, Gaziosmanpaşa, Bakırköy, Bağcılar, Beyoğlu, Kağıthane, Bayrampaşa and Esenler.

One of the main causes of more than 19,000 fires that occurred in the first 11 months of 2020 in Istanbul were cigarette butts, according to data from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Istanbul's Fire Department extinguished 19,087 fires in this period, and cigarette butts were the cause of 7,595 of them, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

People have started selling cemetery plots on the black market for prices as high as 2 million Turkish Liras ($264,000), as finding graves in Istanbul, a metropolis where 70,000 people die every year on average, has become increasingly difficult.

The Istanbul Governor's Office has launched an inquiry into a portrait of Ottoman Emperor Mehmet the Conqueror, which the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality had bought in an auction in London for $1.1 million, after allegations that the painting could be fake.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is working on an artificial intelligence (AI) project to ease the city's notorious traffic jams, daily Milliyet has reported.

Istanbul has only three months of water left, but rainfalls expected in the coming weeks will fill up dams by February for enough water, the deputy director of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) has said.

Oğuz Kasap told lawmakers in parliament that Turkey goes through such a drought every once in a decade.

The "Istanbul The Lights" project, which has been organized by the Contemporary Istanbul Foundation with the support of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, will be realized from Dec. 7 to Jan. 3.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has warned residents to use water more efficiently as water levels in the city's dams decreased to 24.4 percent, almost half of the rate in the same month last year.

The reason for this sharp fall was the lack of rain in November, the municipality said.

Water levels were at 45.27 percent in the same month last year.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's proposal to roll out 6,000 new taxi licenses has been rejected once again by the decision of the city's transportation coordination body.

The proposal of the municipality was put on the agenda for the third time at the Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) meeting held at the Istanbul Congress Center on Nov. 26.

The main causes of nearly 18,000 fires that occurred in the first 10 months of 2020 in Istanbul were cigarette butts and electrical short circuits, according to data from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

The number of fires in 2020 decreased by 7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, the report said.