İstanbul raises public transport, taxi fares

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The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) has raised public transport fares by about 40 percent.

The hike was approved at an extraordinary meeting of the Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME), which had rejected two previous offers by the municipality.

With the hike, full fare for public transport rose from 5.48 lira to 7.67 lira and monthly subscription fee rose from 430 lira to 602 lira.

Minimum fare was set as 5.25 lira for dolmuş and 10 lira for taxi dolmuş."

Minimum taxi fare increased from 20 lira to 28 lira. Taxi starting fee will be 9.8 lira.

Monthly public transport subscription fee for students rose from 78 lira to 109 lira.

This was the second price hike since the start of the year when the municipality hiked public transport fares by 36 percent.

Run by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the IMM previously proposed a 50 percent hike for public transport fares twice, but the UKOME, where the government has the majority, rejected those proposals.

Living costs in the metropolis of 15.4 million people increased by over 73 percent in a year and 11.7 percent in a month, the municipality's planning agency announced on Monday (April 4). (EMK/VK)