Baku, Azerbaijan, March 12
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkey intends to increase the volume of marine cargo transportation in 2019, the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure told Trend on March 12.
“A number of steps will be taken in 2019 to increase the volume of marine cargo transportation,” the ministry said.
“In 2018, 72,300 ships entered the Turkish ports and the gross registered tonnage of all ships which entered during that period was 816.7 million tons,” the ministry said. “The country’s ports are expected to accept about 90,000 ships in 2019.”
“Turkey’s geographical location allows increasing the volume of marine cargo transportation,” the ministry said. "The construction of the shipping channel in Istanbul will also lead to an increase in marine cargo transportation."
The intention to implement the project of construction of the Istanbul shipping channel was announced for the first time in 2011 by Turkish incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The length of the shipping channel in Istanbul will be 43 kilometers.
The width of the Istanbul channel, according to the plans, will be 400 meters, and its depth - 25 meters. The channel will be able to let pass 150-160 vessels per day.
The purpose of the construction of the Istanbul channel is to reduce the burden of shipping on the Bosphorus Strait, as well as to prevent the threat of environmental and man-made disasters on one of the most intense sea routes in the world.
The Bosphorus is used by an average of 150 vessels per day, 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 throughput capacity of the Bosphorus is estimated at 200 million tons.
The Istanbul channel will run parallel to the Bosphorus and will actually make the European part of Istanbul an island and finally separate it from Europe. The channel will pass from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea through the Kucukcekmece Lake.
It is planned to build new residential complexes on the banks of the artificial channel, which will be connected with other areas of the 15 million metropolis thanks to modern transport infrastructure, including metro and high-speed trains, as well as with the third airport in Istanbul.
A new port is also expected to be built as part of this project.
It will be possible to use tankers with a length of 275 meters, a width of 48 meters and a capacity of 14,500 DWT on the Istanbul shipping channel, which is being built as part of the government’s “Vision 2023” plan.
The construction of the navigable channel will continue for five years and the minimum service life of the channel will be 100 years.
(1 USD = 5.4443 TL on March 12)
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