Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure aims to invite bids and begin construction “as soon as possible” on Kanal İstanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s proposed waterway through İstanbul, the BirGün daily reported on Friday.
The 45-kilometer (28-mile) canal would connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara across İstanbul’s European side, creating an alternative shipping route to the Bosporus Strait.
Erdoğan unveiled the plan in 2011, when he was prime minister, calling it his “crazy project.”
The ministry reaffirmed its commitment in an October 13 response to questions the BirGün daily submitted through the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER), a government system that accepts inquiries and complaints from the public.
The ministry’s Kanal İstanbul department explained that survey and engineering work had been completed, while zoning plans were being prepared in stages and design work for transport infrastructure along the route had begun.
The response gave no date for a construction tender or the start of work and provided no details about financing.
Housing construction around the Sazlıdere reservoir, which lies along the proposed route and supplies İstanbul with drinking water, has continued despite objections from the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, while excavation of the canal itself has yet to begin.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2021, but development along the route has centered on bridges, roads and housing rather than excavation of the waterway.
Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) argue that the canal would improve safety by reducing shipping traffic through the Bosporus, which cuts through İstanbul, while opponents warn that it would damage water resources, forests and farmland and generate profits for businesses close to the government.
An expert report signed by 21 specialists in 2025 warned that the project would make the Sazlıdere reservoir unusable, threaten water supplies from Lake Terkos and damage the ecosystem of the Küçükçekmece Lagoon, through which the canal would pass.
Government figures have previously sent conflicting signals about the project, with Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum saying in April 2025 that it was not on his ministry’s agenda and denying that housing developments near Sazlıdere were connected to the canal.
İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, an opponent of the project, accused the government of accelerating housing construction along the route after his imprisonment in March 2025.
İmamoğlu has been jailed pending trial on corruption charges that he denies, describing his prosecution as an attempt to block his presidential candidacy against Erdoğan.
The canal has also prompted debate over the 1936 Montreux Convention, which guarantees passage for merchant vessels through Turkey’s straits while imposing restrictions on warships, particularly those belonging to countries without a Black Sea coastline.
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