Turkey broke ground on the first bridge of the Canal Istanbul, which country officials said will increase Turkey’s effectiveness in world trade and bring the country to a leading position in world economic corridors.
Stating that the Canal Istanbul, which essentially will be a commercial water way connecting Europe to Asia, will leave its mark in history, Adil Karaismailoğlu, Turkey’s Minister of Transport said, “With the Canal, Turkey will be among the world’s leading logistics powers, 500 thousand people will be employed and an economic contribution of $28 billion will be made. Turkey will become a playmaker in global maritime trade.”
Detailed analyses conducted within the framework of the Turkey Logistics Master Plan, which aims to make Turkey a global logistics power, to develop Turkey as a whole and to create more employment, also revealed the need for an “alternative waterway” transportation corridor in the region due to the increasing ship and cargo density in the Straits System.
It is aimed to manage the ship traffic of Istanbul, which is located at the intersection of the Central and North-South corridors. Noting that within the framework of the plan are projects such as Istanbul Airport, Filyos Port, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway, Istanbul-Izmir Highway and Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge have been put into practice, have determined development areas, initiated breakthroughs in maritime transport and reform movements in railways, Karaismailoğlu said.
“One of the most important pillars of Turkey’s growth vision in the last 19 years is the claim we have made in terms of our transportation, communication and logistics infrastructure,” he said. “As a country that dominates the most important trade corridors of the developing world, Turkey will become the world’s most important logistics center with the Canal Istanbul. Thus, the Black Sea will turn into a trade lake for Turkey.”
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The Canal Istanbul, which has 204 scientists taking part in the engineering, will fulfill an important role in highlighting the Istanbul Valley, which is at the crossroads of the world, and in establishing a logistics base, technology development and living center in Turkey by creating a sustainable new generation city.
The Canal Istanbul, which is Turkey’s vision project to protect the historical and cultural texture of the Bosphorus–also known as the Strait of Istanbul, a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey that connects it to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles strait to the Aegean Sea–to reduce the load caused by maritime traffic and to ensure traffic safety, will be put into the service of the country as an alternative waterway in Marmara, the locomotive of the Eurasian region.