Sputnik News – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday launched the construction of the Istanbul Canal that will run parallel to the Bosporus Strait and connect the Black and Marmara seas.
The president took part in the official ceremony by pushing a symbolic button and thus inaugurating the project. The construction will begin with one of the six bridges across the future canal.
“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 [28 miles] in length, at least 275 meters [902 feet] wide and 21 meters deep,” Erdogan said during the ceremony, broadcast on Twitter.
The Istanbul Canal project has been a longtime aspiration of Erdogan, as he was a mayor of the metropolis at some point. The $9.8-billion project seeks to construct a 28-mile canal linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara to relieve shipping pressure off the Bosphorus.
