Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
The Turkish Mass Housing Administration (TOKI) will build residential complexes along the Istanbul Canal, a waterway linking the Black and Marmara seas, a source in the Transport, Shipping and Communications Ministry of Turkey told Trend.
A research work has recently been carried out to study the soil along the Canal, Trend was told.
"TOKI plans to build residential quarters on an area of 4.6 million square meters along the Istanbul Canal," the source said.
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 aim of construction of the Istanbul Canal is to reduce the load on the Bosphorus Strait, as well as to prevent the threat of ecological and man-made disasters on one of the world's most intense sea highways.
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.
A new port is also expected to be constructed within this project.
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, being constructed under the government's "Goal 2023" plan.
The construction of the Istanbul Canal will continue for five years, and the minimum lifetime will be 100 years.
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