The megaproject will have a three-storey, sub-sea tunnel running under Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait connecting the city’s two sides with one railway and two highways and is expected to cut travel times to 14 minutes.
The project will be environmentally-friendly reducing fuel oil consumption by roughly 54 million litres in addition to decreasing carbon emissions by 175t per year.
The AKP political party deputy chairman at the council Abubekir Tasyürek said: "There is no legal problem regarding the project. We did not rush anything.
"The Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry, and experts from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality have been working on this project for months."
