The Turkish government has revealed plans for a canal in Istanbul seeking to reduce maritime traffic on the major shipping lane of Bosphorus Strait and turn the European half of Istanbul into an island. However, the plan foresees the digging of a 400 meter canal through the farmlands of Sazlibosna, a village near Istanbul, which has alarmed residents and environmentalists.
As Reuters has earlier reported, the 45 km ‘Kanal Istanbul’ will link the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara and is expected to ease traffic on the busy Bosphorus strait. Estimated to cost around $16 billion, the canal is seen as one of the most ambitious of President Erdogan’s infrastructure projects.
However, critics, including farmers, environmental groups, as well as the national architects association, have questioned the need for the canal and warned it will destroy an 8,500-year-old archaeological site near Istanbul, while also causing significant environmental damage.
“If land is going to be expropriated, it will be our land – we will lose our homes,” Oktay Teke, Sazlibosna’s local administrator, was quoted as saying.
“Projects at the airport are about to be finished. This (canal) is a job opportunity for us,” said on the other hand one of the workers from Istanbul’s giant new airport.
The project, to be funded through public and private partnerships, is expected to begin this year.
Bosphorus is one of the world’s busiest waterways with 42,000 vessels passing through in 2016 – compared with 16,800 that transited the Suez Canal in the same year.