Turkey plans to build a 150-metre-wide water channel connecting the Black and Marmara seas as an alternative to the congested Bosphorus Strait, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.

"We are rolling up our sleeves for Canal Istanbul, one of the greatest projects of the centuries that will outshine the Panama and Suez canals," Erdogan said.

The announcement came as part of Erdogan's pledges to his electorate ahead of parliamentary elections on June 12, in which his Islamist-rooted party would seek a third straight term in power.

Preliminary studies over the project, expected to take two years, will start after the elections, he said, without disclosing financial terms.

The waterway would be 40-50 kilometres long, with a width of about 150 metres wide and depth of 25 metres, Erdogan said.

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