Road Transport and Bridges Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan has termed the Karnaphuli Tunnel project an instance of “political showmanship” and said they are working to mitigate the huge losses from this “unrealistic” project.
“This tunnel is an unrealistic project. It was essentially a politically-motivated project, a display for earning public attention. Other countries have tunnels underwater, why shouldn’t we have one? But current realities reveal that it was grandstanding,” adviser Fouzul said in an exclusive interview with UNB recently.
The tunnel, built at a cost of around Tk10,700 crore, cannot simply be shut down or dismantled, he said, adding: “We are reviewing the reasons behind the losses and are working on ways to mitigate that.”
Strategies will be worked out in coordination with relevant departments to reduce losses, he said.
The adviser added that authorities are exploring options to increase traffic flow through the tunnel but any investment would be based on concrete data, not inflated projections.
“We have to repay our foreign loans, so there will be no speculative studies,” the adviser said.
He said the tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chittagong — Bangladesh’s first underwater tunnel — failed to see its projected benefits, resulting in substantial daily losses.
Criticising the previous Awami League government, he added: “They took up projects for the sake of having projects without considering national interests. This attitude has caused significant losses to the country.”
He said the tunnel expenses have exceeded income significantly and vehicle flow estimates made before the tunnel’s construction have proven inaccurate, he added.
There were also flaws in the tunnel design as it was constructed with a shorter headroom of 4.9 meters which restricts the movement of heavy vehicles and fuel-carrying transport movement is prohibited due to safety concerns, thereby reducing potential traffic volume, said the adviser.
Besides, projects planned for Chittagong’s southern region and Cox’s Bazar over the project were not implemented, limiting the tunnel’s usage.
Karnaphuli Tunnel was built at a cost of Tk10,700 crore. The tunnel project was implemented with joint funding of the governments of Bangladesh and China (G2G).
The Exim Bank of China provided a loan of Tk5,913 crore while the Bangladesh government funded the rest.
The Karnaphuli River divides Chittagong into two parts. The tunnel being built – following the “One City, Two Towns” model like Shanghai in China – aiming to connect the port city on the north with Anwara upazila on the south.
