Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced that the Eurasia Tunnel is the first transportation project in the world to receive the Blue Dot Network Certificate. Minister Uraloğlu said, “This is the first time a project from our country has received the Blue Dot Network Certificate. The Eurasia Tunnel has also become one of the first four projects in the world to successfully complete the certification process.”
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced that the Eurasia Tunnel successfully completed the Blue Dot Network certification process, the technical framework of which was created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). At the ceremony held at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris on April 24, the Blue Dot Network Secretary General presented certificates to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and Eurasia Tunnel officials.
Minister Uraloğlu stated that the Blue Dot Network is a global initiative that aims to encourage quality, sustainable and inclusive infrastructure investments worldwide and said, “The Eurasia Tunnel has become the first transportation project in the world to receive this certificate by fulfilling the program’s conditions of ‘being open and inclusive, transparent, supporting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and being financially, socially and environmentally sustainable’. Thus, for the first time, a project from our country has received the Blue Dot Network Certificate. The Eurasia Tunnel has also become one of the first four projects to successfully complete the certification process worldwide.”
“The Eurasia Tunnel Has Been Providing Environmentally Sensitive Service for 8 Years”
Minister Uraloğlu, reminding that they held the opening of the Eurasia Tunnel on December 20, 2016 with the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said, “The Eurasia Tunnel, which connects the Asian and European sides of Istanbul with a 5-kilometer double-decker submarine highway tunnel, has been serving as a fast, economical, safe, comfortable and environmentally friendly transportation alternative in the Istanbul Bosphorus crossing for over 8 years.”
155 Million Vehicles Passed Through the Eurasia Tunnel
Minister Uraloğlu noted that 2016 million vehicles have used the Eurasia Tunnel since it was put into service in 155, and made the following statements in his statement:
“In the calculations made by taking into account the Kozyatağı-Bakırköy corridor, it saved its users 8 million hours of time, 211 thousand tons of fuel, 261 thousand tons of emission reduction and 115 million vehicle/kilometer reduction in 590 years, thus contributing 2 billion dollars to the country’s economy. In 2024 alone, we achieved an economic benefit of 445 million dollars thanks to time, fuel, accident cost and emission savings.”
Eurasia Tunnel Produces 322 Kilowatt Hours of Energy Annually
Minister Uraloğlu announced that within the framework of the Eurasia Tunnel's innovative perspective on sustainability, the solar power plant works with an annual production capacity of 322 thousand 880 kilowatt hours in the Operation and Maintenance Building and the Asian Ventilation and Transformer Buildings were completed and put into operation.
Uraloğlu said, “The annual production of the Solar Power Plant, which has 546 panels, 5 inverters and 280 power optimizers, meets the electricity needs of the Eurasia Tunnel data centers. In this way, energy is provided from clean sources and it also supports the reduction of 3 tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to the planting of approximately 500 pine trees.”
