Istanbul Canal not to be burden for state budget
By Vugar Khalilov
Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu has said that the Istanbul Canal project will not be a burden for the state budget, Yeni Shafak has reported.
Karaismailoglu stressed that the government is working on different financing models for the 15 billion-dollar Istanbul Canal project to exempt the state budget from the financial burden.
"On the one hand, we provide transportation routes; on the other hand, we are working on alternative finance models. Our top priority is to build the Istanbul Canal without putting any burden on the general budget. We are working on this finance model. We have reached a certain level there, too,” Karaismailoglu underlined.
The minister pointed out that the world trade volume, which is expected to increase from 12 billion to 25 billion tons, will mainly be carried by sea and the Istanbul Canal as an alternative waterway will play an important role in this direction.
"About 90 percent of world trade is carried out by the sea. While the economic share of maritime transport in our country's total foreign trade was $57 billion in 2003, it increased to $216 billion in 2020," Karaismailoglu said.
He underlined that with the Istanbul Canal, Turkey will increase its dominance in maritime logistics by opening the door to a new era in the transportation sector.
The minister noted that the growth in ship traffic in the Bosporus, through which 43,000 ships pass annually on average, puts great pressure and poses a threat to Istanbul. There is also a very serious risk of accident for the city ferries and ferries that carry 500,000 passengers, he added.
Considering the trade volume in the world and the developments in the region, it is predicted that the number of ships passing through the strait will reach 52,000 in 2035 and 78,000 in the 2050s. This makes an alternative waterway to the Bosporus a mandatory plan, Karaismailoglu underlined.
He noted that the government had already started the construction by laying the foundation of the Sazlidere Bridge, the first transportation bridge within the scope of the Istanbul Canal.
The minister stressed that the construction of a railway project between Halkali-Ispartakule to pass under the Canal as part of the Halkali-Kapikule High-Speed Train line had also been planned.
The government is negotiating with the world's most important infrastructure companies and has made great steps in involving the income-generating businesses to finance the project, Karaismailoglu said.
He noted that the tender will be given to the company that offers the most suitable bid for the project.
The Istanbul Canal is a Turkish project to build an artificial sea-level waterway on East Thrace that will connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and thus to the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.
The canal's goal is to reduce the amount of shipping traffic in the Bosporus. It is expected to have a daily capacity of 160 vessel transits, equivalent to the current volume of traffic through the Bosporus, where ships queue for days to cross the strait due to traffic congestion.
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