Istanbul is one of the world's biggest cities, with about 16 million people. Some two million, cross the Bosphorus every day via just two bridges, causing severe traffic congestion.
The Marmaray tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes.
The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people per hour in either direction
A three-billion-euro rail tunnel under the Bosphorus connecting Istanbul's European and Asian sides, one of several mega projects driven by the Islamic-rooted government in the country's main gateway city.
The 13.6-kilometre (8.5 miles) tunnel includes an immersed tube tunnel which government officials say is the world's deepest at 60 metres (nearly 200 feet) below the seabed.
The underwater section runs for 0.8 miles (1.4 km), but in total the tunnel is 8.5 miles (13.6 km) long.
The inauguration of the ambitious project that has cost an estimated three billion euros coincides with the 90th anniversary of the founding of modern Turkey. "Turkey will celebrate two feasts together," Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be present at the official opening, as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation was the main financer contributing 735 million euros (USD 1 billion) to the project
Construction of the tunnel, labelled the "project of the century" by Erdogan's government, started in 2004 and had been scheduled to take four years but was delayed after a series of major archaeological discoveries. Istanbul archaeologists have uncovered a 4th-Century port at the site.
Yenikapi on the European side of the city was selected to house a state-of-the-art train station. But when shanty homes were cleared from the site, archaeologists uncovered treasures beneath of a kind never before discovered
Just a few metres below ground, they found an ancient port of Constantinople - named in historical records as the Eleutherios harbour, one of the busiest of Byzantium
Some 40,000 objects were excavated from the site, notably a cemetery of some 30 Byzantine ships, which is the largest known medieval fleet.
At the first stage, only tunnel’s only one section, the one between Kazlıçeşme station on the European side and the Ayrılıkçeşme station on the Asian side, will begin to operate.
Trains are scheduled to leave from Kazlıçeşme to reach Söğütlüçeşme on the Anatolian side after hauling out of the sea at Ayrılıkçeşme station, covering almost 13.5 kilometers.
Two different lines of speed trains will soon be joined into the Marmaray route, rounding up to a massive 63-kilometer transportation network through the city.
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