Record number of vehicles pass through Eurasia Tunnel: Minister

ANKARA - Demirören News Agency

The record for daily vehicle transit through the Eurasia Tunnel was broken with 67,982 vehicles on Sept. 8, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismiloğlu has announced.

“A total of 455,746 vehicles passed through the Eurasia Tunnel between Sept. 5 and 11,” said Karaismailoğlu in a written statement, noting that the tunnel both relieves Istanbul’s traffic and contributes to the economy.

A daily average of 65,000 vehicles passed through the tunnel last week, the minister added.

The tunnel, put into service on Dec. 22, 2016, reduced the travel time between the Asian and European continents to five minutes.

The minister also pointed out that since the tunnel started to serve motorcyclists as of May 1, over 122,000 motorcyclists have used the tunnel, adding that over 90 million vehicles have passed through the tunnel in total.

Linking Kazlıçeşme on Istanbul’s European side and Göztepe in Asia, the Euresia Tunnel aims to reduce chronic traffic congestion in Türkiye’s most populous city.

The state guarantee had foreseen that 25.6 million vehicles would use the tunnel per year.