On its 170th anniversary of establishment, IMM City Lines started to build Sea Taxis.

Introduction of the Sea Taxis took place at the Haliç Shipyard and IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and City Lines General Manager Sinem Dedetaş attended the event. Mayor İmamoğlu qualified sea transportation as their priority and relayed technical information on the Sea Taxis. İstanbulites will be determining the Sea Taxis’ color.

Ekrem İmamoğlu: İstanbul’s residents need to and will experience the joy of sea transportation. These new sea taxis align with this city’s spirit and they will be a shareholder of our metropolitan municipality. Simultaneously, knowing that they are a part of the city’s identity and a service, we want to swiftly launch 50 new sea taxis this summer, within an organizational structure and design protecting and reflecting such traits.

When we were assigned, the rate of sea transportation remained even below 3 percent. We wish to increase this level to around 10 percent and higher. These taxis will have a capacity for ten persons, in other words; they will be taxis to transfer people from Adalar to Sarıyer, from Beylikdüzü to Üsküdar and from Pendik to Bakırköy. Of course, we will build them at the 565-year-old shipyard we inherited from Mehmed the Conqueror, so it is an immensely precious task. We plan to complete the construction by the summer of 2021. Do not worry; no doubt we will get through these challenging times.

City Lines General Manager Sinem Dedetaş extended information about the Sea Taxis’ functioning:

The Sea Taxis will serve as the smallest vessels of our fleet for sea transportation, yet they will cover a significant gap. Sea Taxis will not have a specific tariff or route. We hope to see our citizens enjoying the sea taxis and these vehicles becoming a part of public transportation.