ISTANBUL, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, one of the world's busiest waterways, has experienced a 7.1-percent year-on-year increase in maritime traffic for the first nine months of 2024, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said Wednesday.
A total of 31,161 ships navigated the strait's narrow waters during this period, Uraloglu said on social media platform X.
The strait, one of the world's narrowest ones used for international navigation with numerous dangerous points for large-scale ships, facilitated the transportation of 416 million tonnes of cargo in 2023, according to data from the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Dardanelles Strait in the northwestern Canakkale province, which connects the Marmara Sea with the Aegean Sea, hosted 34,646 ships during the first nine months of this year, a 3.1-percent increase compared to last year, Uraloglu said.
The increased maritime traffic signifies Türkiye's ongoing progress toward becoming a "strong and dynamic maritime center" in the future, he added. ■