Karnaphuli Tunnel
First underwater road-tunnel of South Asia in Chittagong, Bangladesh
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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 and Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping inaugurated the construction site of the tunnel on 14 October 2017. Hasina officially inaugurated the construction of the tunnel and inaugurated the tunnel boring phase on 24 February 2019. On 28 October 2023, Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the tunnel as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel and was made available for traffic from 6 am the next day.
It was renamed to Karnaphuli Tunnel on 26 February 2025 by the Interim government of Bangladesh.
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Financing
The construction of the tunnel cost ৳10374 crore (equivalent to ৳110 billion or US$930 million in 2024). 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 ৳5913 crore (US$480 million) 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 numbers.