ISTANBUL: The World Bank approved $512.2 million in financing for Turkey to expand access to housing and infrastructure that is resilient to climate and natural hazard, the bank said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the World Bank said $338.5 million of the financing will be used for developing new, affordable financing mechanisms to enable households retrofit or reconstruct their housing to increase resilience to seismic and climate hazards.

The remaining $173.6 million will be used by Iller Bankasi to provide financing to municipalities to build more resilient infrastructure.

World Bank forecasts Thai GDP growth at 3.1% this year

The project will focus on urban areas in the provinces of Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Manisa, and Tekirdag, the bank said, adding that an estimated 1 million people will benefit from upgraded infrastructure and 32,000 people will benefit from loans to reconstruct or retrofit their risky housing units.