Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has officially launched the construction of the Kanal Istanbul megaproject. The artificial canal to substitute the natural Bosporus Strait is expected to be completed in just six years, RT reports.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the canal, set to link the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, was held on Saturday at a construction site of one of the six bridges across the future waterway. The ceremony was attended by Turkey’s president, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu, and other top officials.
“Today, we are turning a new page in Turkey’s development by laying the first stone in the construction of the first bridge across the Istanbul Canal, which will be 45 kilometers in length, at least 275 meters wide and 21 meters deep,” Erdogan stated.
The president of Turkey said during the groundbreaking ceremony, that some 45,000 ships pass through the Bosporus yearly. Projections show that this number will reach 78,000 in 2050.
