The second section of the M5 Üsküdar-Ümraniye-Çekmeköy line will open on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 21, the president of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said Thursday.

Mevlüt Uysal said the Ümraniye-Çekmeköy section – the part of the project realized by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – will go into service with an opening ceremony in the Çekmeköy Madenler Square at 3:30 p.m.

The second section of the line will increase the number of stations from eight to 16.

Uysal pointed out that the newest metro covers a route of heavy traffic, which will be relieved with the introduction of the Ümraniye-Çekmeköy line.

The line will carry an average of 600,000-700,000 people a day, Uysal said, adding that work continues to ensure the line reaches full capacity.

The fully-automated M5 Üsküdar-Sancaktepe line's first phase was brought into service in December 2017 with eight stations from Üsküdar and Ümraniye.

The 20-kilometer-long (12-mile-long) metro line has an estimated cost of 800 million euros.

The driverless metro is operated from a remote command center. The completed metro line will have 126 cars in total. The maximum passenger capacity per hour will be 64,800 while the maximum speed of the cars will be 80km/h.