The 6.5km tunnel would provide a road and rail connection between the city’s two sides, cutting travel times to 14 minutes.
Davutoglu described the 6.5 km-long tunnel as the first of its kind in the world. It would take road and rail 110m under the Bosphorus Strait, with the road carriageways positioned above and below the railway.
He stressed that Bosphorus Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and the Yavuz Sultan Selim bridge - currently under construction - will be connected to each other once the tunnel is completed.The tunnel will both reduce the traffic load on the bridges and maximise time savings, he said. He added that the tunnel will connect Istanbul's three airports as well as the city's main axes of nine rail systems with the land routes.
Davutoglu announced that the transportation capacity of the tunnel will be 6.5 million passengers, adding that the structure will increase the annual numbers crossing between Istanbul’s two sides from 1.6 million to 4 million.
He said that the aim is to complete the overall project and put the tunnel into service within five years.
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