Baku, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Tankers with a length not exceeding 275 meters, a width of 48 meters and a carrying capacity of 14,500 DWT will be allowed to operate on the Istanbul Canal, a waterway linking the Black and Marmara seas and being constructed under the government's "Goal 2023" plan, the Turkish Environment and Urbanization Ministry said in a message on March 5.
The ministry said that the construction of the Istanbul Canal will continue for five years, and the minimum lifetime will be 100 years.
Presently, the work is underway to design a logistics center, which is planned to be built within the framework of the Istanbul Canal project.
The length of the Istanbul Canal will be 45 kilometers.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed intention to implement the Istanbul Canal project in 2011.
The depth and width of the Istanbul Canal will be 25 meters and 400 meters, respectively.
Presently, an average of 150 vessels pass through the Bosphorus daily, of which about 30 are oil tankers. Annually about 150 million tons of oil and oil products are transported through the Black Sea straits, while the capacity of the Bosporus is estimated at 200 million tons.
The Istanbul Canal will run parallel to the Bosphorus and in fact will turn the European part of Istanbul into an island and finally separate it from Europe.