Turkey plans to build a canal from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, turning Istanbul into two peninsulas and an island in order to divert shipping from the Bosporus. The Istanbul canal will be up to 50km long, 150m wide and 25m deep, and carry about 160 ships a day.
It is estimated it will take eight years to build the canal. Turkey seeks to keep shipping away from the Bosporus, which goes through the middle of the city and is one of the world’s busiest choke points as well as one of the most difficult waterways to navigate for oil tankers. Around 2.9 million barrels of oil a day were moved through the Bosporus in 2009.
