Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.6 / Trend, A.Taghiyeva /
After the commissioning of the third airport in Istanbul, Ataturk Airport with an area of 11,700 hectares will be changed into a park, the Habertürk newspaper quotes Istanbul Major Kadir Topbas as saying on Wednesday.
Thus, the new park of Istanbul will be one of the largest in the world. A new metro station will be constructed there as well.
Earlier it was reported that after a third airport is commissioned in Istanbul, Ataturk Airport may be closed.
The third airport in Istanbul will be built on an area near Lake Terkos north of the city. He added that the airport's transportation capacity will reach 150 million passengers a year.
Earlier, the Air Transport Department under the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Shipping and Communications told Trend that the construction of the third airport in Istanbul will cost 10 billion lira.
The ministry also stressed that at the first stage, the airport will have the capacity to serve 90 million people a year. Later, this figure will be increased to 150 million.