Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan stated that the work on the Canal Istanbul Project will now be continued along the Kucukçekmece-Sazlıdere-Durusu corridor route, adding, "We aim to finish the tender processes with a mixed model, including the build-operate-transfer model, other alternatives to public-private cooperation, and to hit digging later this year."
Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan 
stated that the work on the Project will be continued on the Kucukçekmece-Sazlıdere-Durusu corridor route from now on, adding, "We aim to finish the tender processes with a mixed model, including the build-operate-transfer model, other alternatives to public-private cooperation, and hit digging later this year."
Arslan said at a press conference at the Ministry where the route of the Canal Istanbul Project was announced that all studies were carried out within the scope of the assessment of earthquake risks, taking into account the average recurrence times of 72 years, 475 years and 2,475 years.
Pointing out that the parameters related to the tsunami were also determined in the project, Arslan stated that detailed studies were carried out in this context and that the preliminary report determined that there would be no negative impact.
Arslan pointed out that modeling studies were carried out in the project area using wind data for about 25 years, "Wind and deep sea waves at the Entrances to the Black Sea and Marmara Sea were examined. The effect of the waves that will consist of ship crossings in the canal on the side surfaces of the canal has been evaluated according to the most negative scenarios and detailed studies are continuing."
Pointing out that an additional 7,000 meters of drilling was carried out on the 10,000 meters in the first stage, so that a total of 17,000 meters of drilling was completed by the end of 2017, Arslan stated that the contents of the canal excavation can be used as filling material within the framework of the needs.
– "All related projects will be evaluated together"
Arslan said that it is taken into account that there is no interaction with the Terkos Lake watershed and that the residents of Baklalı and Dursunköy are not adversely affected when the route works are carried out. "He said, "I'm not going to
Arslan stated that they aim to pass the 3 crossings on the Marmara side under Kucukçekmece Lake with the sinking tube, as in the Marmaray project, and announced that they will make all other alternatives to the north in the form of bridge crossings.
– "We aim to hit the pickaxe later this year"
Arslan noted that there will be no long-distance, viaduct-requiring crossings at crossings across the street.
"As a result of all these studies, all possible interactions on the Thrace side of our country have been taken into account and the studies have been carried out on 5 alternatives to date. After that, our work will be continued by the 4th alternative, Küçükçekmece-Sazlıdere-Durusu corridor route, which provides the most advantageous location. Our goal is to finish the tender processes with a mixed model, including the build-operate-transfer model, other alternatives to public-private cooperation, and we aim to hit the digging later this year."
Answering questions from journalists after the press conference, Arslan explained that they had discussed some issues with importance in the work for Kanal Istanbul, "One of them was that the project provided an advantage regarding ship crossings, the second was the planning in which the lives of people on the route would not be effective, and the third was the completion of istanbul's work on underground and above-ground freshwater sources."
Arslan underlined that in such a large project, an amount that can be said before the work on the channel section, including financing modeling, is finished, "But the fact is that the biggest project in our country right now is the Third Airport with about 10.5 billion euros, the biggest project with a rental price of 22 billion euros during the 25-year operating period. However, Kanal Istanbul will be even bigger than that."
Arslan stated that the project itself will be done with a build-operate-transfer model, while integrated projects can be evaluated differently in the tender processes.
Arslan said that Kucukcekmece Lake is not used as a freshwater source. In a sense, we will connect the lake to the Black Sea and marmara."