In 1961 the canal was extended to the Tejen River in a second phase. A third phase, to bring water to Ashgabat, was accelerated due to the 1961 drought, and water from the Amu Darya was first delivered to the capital city on May 12, 1962. Next followed construction of the Gurtly and Köpetdag Water Reservoirs, and then came the fourth phase, extension of the canal as far as Bereket, which was completed in 1981. From Bereket, water is delivered to Balkanabat, Hazar and Turkmenbashy by pipeline. The 1,100-kilometer canal, designed mainly for irrigation, is navigable for 200 kilometers from the Amu Darya. The Amu Darya is navigable in Turkmenistan for about 320 kilometers downstream from the Afghanistan border to Turkmenabat. Pipelines Major ports and harbours Turkmenistan's largest seaport by far is Turkmenbashy International Seaport. The port was opened in October 1896. The Merchant Seaport Authority was founded in 1903. The port was substantially reconstructed between 2000 and 2003. Passenger ferry service to the port of Baku, Azerbaijan as well as rail ferries to other ports on the Caspian Sea (Baku, Aktau) began in 1962. In recent years tanker transport of oil to the ports of Baku and Makhachkala has increased. In May 2018 construction was completed of a major expansion of the Turkmenbashy seaport. Cost of the project was $1.5 billion. The general contractor for the project was Gap Inşaat, a subsidiary of Çalık Holding of Turkey. The expansion added 17 million tons of annual capacity, making total throughput including previously existing facilities of over 25 million tons per year. The international ferry and passenger terminals can serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 vehicles per year, and the container terminal is designed to handle 400,000 TEU (20-foot container equivalent) per year. Turkmenbashy International Seaport includes a shipyard. The port authority also oversees operations of the Kenar, Alaja, and Ekerem oil loading terminals. Smaller industrial loading terminals are located at Hazar (oil), Kiyanly () (plastics), and Garabogaz (urea). In 2006 Turkmenistan had eight merchant marine vessels of more than 1,000 tons displacement, of which four were cargo ships, two were oil tankers, one was for refrigerated cargo, and one was a combination ore and oil ship. As of 2019 the national maritime carrier, closed joint-stock company Marine Merchant Fleet, possessed 19 ships, including 4 dry cargo vessels, 7 oil tankers, 2 Ro-Pax ferries, 3 passenger-only ferries, 2 tugboats, and one yacht.