Turkey is prepared to start building Channel Istanbul (Kanal Istanbul), a potential alternative to Bosporus Strait, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2018) Turkey is prepared to start building Channel Istanbul (Kanal Istanbul), a potential alternative to Bosporus Strait, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.
"The new waterway will be 43 kilometers [about 26.7 miles] long ... This is the largest project in the history of Turkey, which has strategic importance for the country. We are ready to implement it," Erdogan said at a congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
In January, Ankara presented a planned route for the channel. The new waterway is expected to pass through Sazlisu Dam and Terkos Dam.
Erdogan announced a possibility of building the channel in 2011, when he was a prime minister. A new waterway, linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, would help relieve the traffic through the Bosporus Strait.
