Turkey opens on Saturday 26 June construction works of the Istanbul Canal (Kanal Istanbul, in Turkish), an infrastructure of 45 kilometers long that will artificially unite Europe and Asia for the first time in history and open a new navigable route between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
A work that the country’s president, Recip Tayip Erdogan, defines as his “crazy project”, as he described it on 2011, when he presented it for the first time in public, while still Prime Minister.
Since then, this ambitious plan inspired by the Panama and Suez canals and which will run parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, has been advancing step by step until the present day , whose works will be celebrated with an official ceremony and will last 7 years, according to local media.
Although it is not a project on which there is consensus in Turkey, as there have been criticisms about its possible social, economic and environmental repercussions.
What is the Kanal Istanbul project like?
The new gap between continents will convert Istanbul, which with more than 12 million inhabitants is the largest city in Turkey, technically at least, on an island.
The new road – according to the Turkish government – will have 19 meters deep and between 250 and 1, meters wide , depending on the sections.
The canal will run in a south-northeast direction through the so-called “Küçükçekmece-Sazlıdere-Durusu corridor” .
Part of the route will run through the Küçükçekmece lake, near to the Sea of Marmara, and will flow into the Black Sea through the Sazlıdere Dam.
One of the busiest shipping routes of the world
The Turkish government defends its project that, it assures, will serve to alleviate traffic of ships through the Bosphorus , one of the narrowest and busiest natural maritime routes in the world.
The canal will be built at a cost of more than $ 8, 000 millions of dollars, according to authorities, and will allow the daily passage of 250 ships, in front of the 73 – 125 traversing the Bosphorus today.
“The main objective of this project is to reduce the risks posed by the passage of ships loaded with hazardous materials through the Bosphorus,” he said in 2018 the Ministry of Transport of Turkey, at the time of the presentation of the final route of the canal.
On 2016 , about 42, 000 Ships circulated on the only natural navigable route between Europe and Asia. In the same period, 16, 912 ships crossed the Panama Canal and a figure similar sailed through the Suez Canal.
The Bosphorus -with a length of 30 km and a width ranging from 750 m and the 3.7 km- is the only exit to the outside of the Black Sea from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and the southern ports of Russia.
On its banks, residential areas and services are planned that will extend the city of Istanbul to the west.
Erdogan’s megaprojects
Urban megaprojects and civil works were in recent years one of the tools used by the Erdogan government to promote the Turkish economy.
Erdogan, leader of the Right-wing Islamist Justice and Development Party has ruled Turkey since 2003, first as first minister and, since 2014, as president of the country.