Erdogan opens first road tunnel under Istanbul’s Bosphorus

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday opened the first ever road tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul from Europe to Asia, the latest project in his plan of transforming Turkey’s infrastructure.

The opening ceremony - which brought together Turkey’s entire ruling elite - went ahead as planned despite the shock assassination of the Russian ambassador to Ankara by a Turkish policeman a day earlier.

Turkey in October 2013 opened the Marmaray rail tunnel underneath the iconic waterway, the first link beneath the waters that divide Europe and Asia. But the new Avrasya (Eurasia) Tunnel is the first tunnel for cars underneath the Bosphorus and aims to relieve congestion in the traffic-clogged Turkish megacity.

Erdogan, after cutting the ceremonial ribbon, joined a vast cortege of vehicles making the first undersea car journey between continents.