Turkey’s Proposed ‘Kanal Istanbul’ Alarms Villagers and Environmentalists

I have followed GCaptain for many years and look forward to reading due to the very diverse maritime subjects. I spent 5 years as a hydrographic surveyor in the Royal Navy it the early 60s and got my watchkeeping certificate on an aircraft carrier so I am not totally and have transatlantic crossings by sail.

When I read the article on the Kanal Istanbul it got my juices flowing on a number of accounts so I wish to suggest an alternative.

BASED ON: Presuming the Bospheros Strait is territorial water belonging to Turkey.
Why not set up regulations as to the traffic flow based on the time it takes for ships to pass from one end to the other. Say if it is two hours for a ship to traverse the Strait then there would be say 3hrs from East to West traffic then 1 hour for it to allow all traffic in transit to clear the Strait before opening to traffic to go West to East. Ships would be aware of this and have to time their sailings accordingly and it is little different to ships waiting to go through the Suez or Panama canals.

There may have to be anchorages at each specifically for ships waiting to make the transit.
I am sure it would take a while for the administrative people to put in place for for necessary signage to be posted, which would include messages for cross strait vessels, ferries etc, so they are aware which way the traffic will be coming from.

At the end of the day the cost would be in the millions not BILLIONS so the money could be channeled to other schemes the President has in mind. Most importantly the people that would be displaced would be pleased and all the environmental aspects will be saved which in this world is becoming increasingly a big challenge around the world.
Richard Wood Halifax Canada