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Plans for massive canal through Istanbul unveiled

27 April 2011 [17:50] - TODAY.AZ
Plans to build a canal through Istanbul - which would become the city's second major waterway - were unveiled Wednesday by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, DPA reported.

Erdogan, who calls his own plan a "crazy project," says the point of the effort is to relieve the naturally formed Bosphorous Strait, which is already traversed by about 50,000 commercial vessels a day, to say nothing of private boats.

The plan would centre upon building a massive waterway that would connect the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, turning the European side of Istanbul into an island created by the Bosphorus Strait on one side and a man-made canal on the other.

Erdogan's announcement has been eagerly anticipated for weeks.

Dubbed Kanal Istanbul, the waterway would be 45-50 kilometres long, approximately 150 metres wide and about 25 metres deep, Erdogan said.

The naturally formed Bosphorus Strait, which runs through the city of Istanbul, is one of the world's most heavily transited waterways, classified by the United States Department of Energy as a "World Oil Transit Chokepoint."

Of the 50,000 commercial vessels that cross it annually, about 10 percent are oil tankers.

Under Erdogan's plan, oil tankers and other transit vessels would be routed through the Istanbul Canal, thus reducing the environmental toll on the Bosphorus.

Erdogan did not name a price tag for the enormous canal project, but said feasibility studies would begin right away and would take two years.

"Today we are rolling up our sleeves to embark on one of the greatest projects of the century, which cannot even be compared to the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal," the prime minister told an enthusiastic audience of supporters.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) is expected to win an unprecedented third term in parliament in national elections scheduled for June.

The AKP has been courting voters with large-scale construction and transportation projects, all part of a plan to upgrade Turkey's infrastructure before the year 2023, the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.


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URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/85187.html

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