A year after opening, Bangladesh’s $1.6bn tolled road tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chittagong has failed to attract the volume of traffic that was projected, BDNews24 reports.
The 3.4km-long tunnel was built by China Communications and part-financed with a $540m loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.
It was inaugurated by then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina on 28 October 2023.
It was expected to handle about 18,500 vehicles a day, but figures show that the actual daily average was 3,910.
The expectation was that the tunnel would be self-supporting, but the toll collection of $87,000 was less than a third of the money needed to pay for the tunnel’s operation and maintenance.
The tunnel was also expected to stimulate economic development on either bank of the river, leading to higher traffic flows but, so far, this has not been realised.
From June to August this year, Bangladesh was gripped by mass protests against the government, shutting parts of the economy down. This led Sheikh Hasina to flee to India on 5 August. An interim government was established on 9 August.
Abul Kalam Azad, deputy director of the project, told Daily Bangladesh that public and private development projects on either side of the tunnel had not been implemented.
The Karnaphuli Tunnel took eight years to design and build. It consists of two tubes 10.7m wide and 4.9m high, with an approach road of 5.4km and a 740m bridge linking the main city on the west with the east.
According to Daily Bangladesh, Dhaka has signed a five-year contract with China Communications for the tunnel’s maintenance.
The government is also paying interest on the $705m loan taken from China for the project.
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