Istanbul underwater tunnel approaching its ‘last meters’

An underground road tunnel under the mouth of the Bosphorus is meters from being completed, according to officials and project managers.

Turkey to build giant undersea tunnel linking Asia and Europe. The tunnel will consist of two highways and a railway

Turkey announced here on Friday its plans to build a giant undersea three-floor tunnel that will pass through the Bosphorus Strait of Istanbul.

"Istanbul is a city which shapes history and deserves the best, including mega-projects" Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, while presenting the new project in an event organized by the Ministry of Transportation.

Asia and Europe to get Bosphorus rail link as Marmaray opens tomorrow. -The world’s deepest submerged underwater railway tunnel (62 meter at its deepest point)

The European and Asian sides of Istanbul (Constantinople) are to be connected for the first time with a railway tunnel constructed under the Bosphorus, officially opened tomorrow, the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic.

A Turkish-Japanese consortium has realized the project, called the Marmaray, fulfilling a 150-year-old dream.

Before a press tour between the European and Asian sides of Istanbul prior to its official opening, Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said it was first suggested by Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid and that projects were submitted by French, British and American architects under Abdülhamid II in 1891. But first technological, then financial difficulties prevented the project from coming to fruition until the late 1990s, when the first feasibility studies were started. The work actually started under Erdoğan’s government in 2005.