Turkey: Istanbul Seismic Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Additional Financing Project

approved

Building on the highly successful Istanbul Seismic Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness (ISMEP) Program initiated and implemented by the World Bank during 2005-2015, the ISMEP Program has since received support from many International Finance Institutions (IFIs) including AIIB financed ISMEP Project that was approved in 2019. The Project will finance similar structural retrofitting and reconstruction of priority public buildings such as schools, hospitals, and other social facilities. Recently, the IPCU has identified the backlog of 69 additional educational buildings, built prior to 1999, that were found to be unsafe and not in compliance with the seismic resilient building code at various level. Preliminary study shows that for many buildings retrofitting are not technically and economically feasible. Therefore, reconstruction of these buildings will be required after demolition of the old structures. Feasibility study reports that these additional buildings are being carried out and funded by the KfW Development Bank (KfW). Similar to the previous ISMEP project financed by AIIB, this additional financing Project comprises of three components as shown below. Component A: Enhancing Emergency Preparedness This component aims to enhance the emergency preparedness of the City of Istanbul by strengthening the capacity of Istanbul's Provincial Directorate of Disaster and Emergency and other first responders. Component B: Seismic Risk Mitigation for Public Facilities This component is to reduce the risk of future earthquake damages to critical public facilities in order to save lives and ensure their continued functioning operation in the event of an earthquake. The component will mainly consist of retrofitting and reconstruction of the existing priority public facilities such as schools, hospitals, and other social facilities (daycare centers, aged group homes for the elderly, and orphanages, etc.). The component may also support feasibility studies, detailed designs, and construction supervision. The Project's implementing entity, IPCU, has already identified about 40 buildings to be included in the project based on the ISMEP program's established rules. Component C: Project Management Support This component will support IPCU to implement the Project in an efficient and transparent manner and continue to build the institutional capacity to sustain the implementation of the Seismic Risk Mitigation and Preparedness program beyond the life of the Project.