Photo: AA
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Development plans for Canal (Kanal) İstanbul have been approved and made public, Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum announced on Saturday (March 27).
"We have approved the Kanal Istanbul Project development plans and put them out for public consultation. We will rapidly take steps to enrich our country and sacred city with Kanal Istanbul," he wrote on Twitter.
"... We made public our 1/100000 scale plan as of the last week. We have also approved and made public the 1/5000 and 1/1000 development plans to evaluate objections and solve problems of our citizens," he told reporters after a visit to Çekmeköy District Municipality.
Canal İstanbul is a planned 45-kilometer long artificial waterway linking the Black Sea in the north and the Sea of Marmara in the south through İstanbul.
Map: AA
It was first announced as a "crazy project" by then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2011.
The first tender for the project was lodged last March.
Critics of the project, including scientists and opposition politicians, point out its high cost and possible environmental impact, as well as its unnecessity as it won't save any distance compared to the Bosphorus Strait.
İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has been campaigning against the project under the slogan "Either the canal or İstanbul," saying that the "only a few rich people" will benefit from the project.
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