The Karnaphuli Tunnel () is an underwater expressway tunnel in the port city of

Chittagong Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

under the

Karnaphuli River The Karnaphuli River ( ''Kôrnophuli''; also spelt Karnafuli and Khawthlangtuipui in Mizo, meaning "western river" and Borgang in Chakma, meaning "Big River") is the largest and most important river in Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tract ...

. The length of the entire route is , with the tunnel making up of the length. The tunnel diameter is . It is expected, over 17,000 vehicles will be able to use this tunnel daily. The cost of the project is estimated at US$1.1B, of which around half is financed by the

Exim Bank of China Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) used on Unix-like operating systems. Exim is a free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and it aims to be a general and flexible mailer with extensive facilities for checkin ...

. The Karnaphuli Tunnel is the first underwater road tunnel in South Asia. It is expected to improve the

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

Cox's Bazar Cox's Bazar (; ; ) is a city, fishing port, tourism centre, and Cox's Bazar District, district headquarters in south-eastern Bangladesh. Cox's Bazar Beach, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Bangladesh, is the longest uninterrupte ...

highway network. A Chinese company, China Communications Construction Company, was selected to construct it. The tunnel segments were produced in

Zhenjiang Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and ...

, China.

History

On 14 October 2016, the Bangladesh Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping laid the foundation stone of the project. Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

and Chinese Communist Party general secretary

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

inaugurated the construction site of the Karnaphuli Tunnel on 14 October 2017. Hasina officially inaugurated the construction of the tunnel and inaugurated the tunnel boring phase on 24 February 2019. On Saturday 28 October 2023,

inaugurated the Karnaphuli Tunnel and was made available for traffic from 6 am the next day.

Financing

The construction of the tunnel cost . In October 2016, during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Dhaka, the loan agreement for the construction of the Karnaphuli Tunnel was signed. According to the agreement, Exim Bank of China provided as a 20-year loan at 2 percent interest rate. The rest of the funding was provided by the Bangladesh government. According to the Karnaphuli Tunnel Authority, in the first year since its inauguration, the daily expenditure is four times more than the income. The tunnel authorities are facing financial losses, mainly due to the lack of expected traffic. According to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, till 20 October 2024, an average of 3,910 vehicles used the tunnel daily, from which the average daily income was Tk 10 lakh 37 thousand, against the daily operating cost of Tk 37 lakh 47 thousand. As there is not enough income from the tunnel, these expenses are being paid from the state treasury.

Technologies

Karnaphuli Tunnel has more than 100 cameras for security, capable of discerning

license plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British, Indian and Australian English), license plate (American English) or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for ...

numbers.

References

{{Reflist Karnaphuli River Transport in Chittagong Tunnels in Bangladesh

History

Financing

Technologies

See also

References