According to a project planned to be valued at 20bl$, Istanbul will have a big island by opening a new canal (100mt wide in average) starting from Golden Horn to the North of Bosphorus. The idea is to have new transportation ways to cope with the city traffic burden.

Source: here

I find this a highly unlikely plan... How does putting a bunch of water in the city help transport? What are all the new metro-tunnels for, if those are not to help transport?

I agree..

I dont think it is realistic.. I dont think it will help the traffic at all. It will open some more green areas to housing..

Politicians always try to do something important so that their names can be mentioned for ever..

I remember reading somewhere that there is a tendency in politicians to be a hero in eastern cultures..

But it is one of those ´sensational´ projects.. I remember hearing ´selling the rights of running Istanbul to foreigners´ once to get extra money. It was suggested to ex PM Mesut Yilmaz years ago and he rejected by saying ´are you planning to send me to gallows´. 

This artificial water channel has nothing to do with the traffic problem in İstanbul, but 20 billion dollars to be vaporized, and giving some people - who are close to the government, the advantage of speculative profits from real estate investments.

Ah, now this is someone who knows how things work in Turkey!

Every year, the cancel more and more boat runs on the Bosphorus. I live in Anadoluhisarı, and thank God that there are still some boats running from Eminönü to Anadoluhisarι in the evening. For me the issue isn´t so much "making traffic better" but having alternatives. As long as you have thousands of people hell-bent on driving to work alone in the car when they could just as well get there by public transportation, the roads will be clogged and there will be demand for more and more roads, more bridges across the Bosphorus (the next one is planned for Beykoz...argh..) and more pollution.