A rail tunnel's trial run has been successfully accomplished by Turkey. The tunnel connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.

It is, reportedly, the first of the many planned mega projects in the largest city of the nation that has been made available.

As per the findings, the tunnel stretches up to 13.6 km and passes under the Bosphorus Strait of Turkey. The same is a busy shipping channel that acts as a connection between the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea.

The tunnel comprises of an immersed tube tunnel that goes 1.4 km. It is the deepest tunnel of its kind across the whole world i. e. at 56 meters.

A Japanese-Turkish consortium had begun the construction on the tunnel in 2004. It is being funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The report said that the tunnel was part of a larger "Marmaray" project worth around $5 billion. An upgrade of the existing suburban rail lines is also comprised by the same so as to create a line of 76 km. The government said that the same would carry some 1.5 million people per day across the two sides of the city.

"It is not very crowded yet as the governor of Istanbul has said no protesters would be allowed in front of the courthouse", avowed Al Jazeera's Aylin Yazan.