..76 kilometers in total. 

It is expected to transport around one million people per day by connecting the continents in four minutes.

Much-anticipated mega project that is expected to cost around 9.3 billion Turkish Liras ($4.5 billion) after completion of all stages has been promoted to be an effective remedy to Istanbul’s chronic traffic congestion problem at Bosporus.

The 13.6-kilometer tunnel, including a 1.4-kilometer immersed tube tunnel, is the deepest of its kind in the world at 60 meters.

At the first stage, only tunnel’s only one section, the one between Kazliçesme station on the European side and the Ayrilikçesme station on the Asian side, will begin to operate.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/asia-and-europe-to-get-bosphorus-rail-link-as-marmaray-opens-tomorrow.aspx?pageID=238&nID=56949&NewsCatID=341

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Opening tomorrow..

There are serious qualified claims that this is a politically forced early opening for this complex project.

This early political opening leaves wide contractual gaps, through which contractors will be able to avoid their responsibilities, if anything goes wrong.

http://www.odatv.com/n.php?n=bu-haliyle-acilirsa-bir-felaket-olur-2210131200

The Marmaray, the underwater rail tunnel linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, took its maiden journey on Oct. 29 following a grand ceremony celebrating the realization of the government’s first of many mega projects. 

The ceremony, which coincided with the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic, was attended by Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Somali President Hasan Sheikh Mahmud and a number of foreign civil servants. 

...

Source:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/marmaray-tunnel-officially-opens-on-turkish-republics-90th-anniversary.aspx?pageID=238&nID=57035&NewsCatID=341

The sultan’s dream

ABDUL MEJID I, the Ottoman’s 31st sultan, had a dream. Reigning between 1839 and 1861, the determinedly Western-leaning sultan envisaged the construction of a submerged tunnel under the Bosphorus Straits connecting Asia to Europe. A French architect duly came up with a blueprint. But a dearth of technology and cash stood in the way.

The sultan’s dream is now coming true, 150 years later. 

..

AK officials privately concede that the country’s strained finances make it unlikely that the canal will be built. Yet they dismiss reports that the government is having trouble financing the new airport as black propaganda by the same “global forces” that are bent on unseating Mr Erdogan.

The AK often resorts to such tactics itself. At the height of the Gezi Park unrest, Mr Erdogan suggested that inebriated demonstrators had urinated and copulated in an Ottoman mosque. When the muezzin refused to corroborate this, he was exiled to another mosque, prompting an outcry among anti-capitalist Muslims who decry what they see as AK’s lurch towards luxury and greed. In an ironic twist, the mosque where the alleged sinful acts occurred was built by Abdul Mejid’s mother Bezmialem, a former Christian slave girl, whose real name was “Suzi”.

Source: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21588432-next-week-marks-opening-grand-new-tunnel-under-bosphorus-sultans-dream

He had many other wet dreams too........