As all of the construction work for the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram has been finished, preparations are being made for its opening.
“The Bangabandhu Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River is getting ready for traffic,” Project Director (PD) Md Harunur Rashid Chowdhury said to BSS in this city today.
He claimed that because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the tunnel on October 28, the finishing touches are now being made.
The tunnel is fully prepared for vehicular movement, the PD said, adding, “This historic project marks the country’s first-ever underwater tunnel, and preparations for its grand inauguration are underway.”
The tunnel that will truly make Chattogram “one city with two towns” is being built beneath the Karnaphuli River, and it is anticipated to be open for vehicular traffic in October, according to project documents.
According to this, Cox’s Bazar and Chattogram would be directly connected by the multilane tunnel, which will link the Chattogam Port and Anwara upazila.
According to the project specs, two tubes that are 35 feet wide and 16 feet high have been built to fit into an 11-metre space to make the tunnel easier to navigate for large trucks.
The major city, port, and Eastern and Western sides of the river are connected by a 740-meter bridge. The tunnel is 3.40 kilometers long, with an approach road of 5.35 kilometers.
As part of the project, bridges with a combined length of 740 meters have been constructed to connect the major port city and the Karnaphuli River’s western bank with the heavily industrializing bank on the river’s eastern side and the Anwara upazila.
On February 24, 2019, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, officially began the process of drilling the first tunnel tube.
On October 14, 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina jointly lay the cornerstone for the Bangabandhu Tunnel. The project’s contractor is China Communications Construction Company Ltd.
The tunnel will cut the distance between the Dhaka-Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar Highway and the projected Asian Highway by 40 kilometers. It stated that vehicles would travel through this tunnel at a speed of 80 km/h.
The price tag for the Bangabandhu Tunnel is 10,374 crore Taka. The governments of Bangladesh and China are working together to fund the tunnel project. With a 2% interest rate, the Exim Bank of China is providing a loan of Taka 5,913 crore, with the Bangladeshi government covering the balance.
