‘Excavation of Karnaphuli tunnel’s 2nd tube to end on Friday’

The excavation of second tube of the 3.315-km Karnaphuli tunnel will be completed on Friday, said Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, project director of Multilane Road Tunnel under River Karnaphuli Project.

"We are done with 73% construction work of the tunnel," he told The Business Standard on Tuesday.

After a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) earlier in the day, Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said the tunnel will be named as "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel".

The tunnel, being constructed at a depth of 18 to 43 metres below the water, will connect Chattogram city with the other side of the Karnaphuli River. 

The project was planned to develop the city of Chattogram in the "One City Two Towns" model like the city of Shanghai, China.

Approved in 2015 involving an estimated cost of Tk8,447 crore, the project was supposed to be completed by 2020. However in 2018, the duration of the project was extended till December 2022 as the work was not speeded up due to various complications. 

The total cost of the project in the revised project has been estimated at Tk10,374 crore. The Exim Bank of China is giving a hard loan of Tk5,913 crore. China Communication Construction Company Ltd is working as the contractor for the project.

The tunnel will reduce the distance from Chattogram to Cox's Bazar by 40-km. Vehicles in this tunnel will run at a speed of 80-km per hour.