Bangladesh
Bangabandhu Tunnel Bangabandhu Tunnel to be operational by December 2022
Dhaka, March 1: The discussed mega development project and the country's first Bangabandhu tunnel under the river will be launched in December 2022. Already 65 percent of the construction work has been completed. A tube has been fully installed from Patenga end of Chittagong city to Anwara on the other side of Karnafuli river. The work of installing the second tube is also going on at a fast pace.
On the other hand, the construction of a road is now going on through the tube where the installation has been completed. A 4-lane road will be constructed in two tubes of this tunnel. It is expected that all types of vehicles will start moving through the Bangabandhu Tunnel by December 2022.
Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, project director of Karnafuli Tunnel in Chittagong, said that the construction work of Karnafuli Tunnel is progressing very fast under the supervision of skilled engineers from China. The first tube installation of the tunnel from Patenga to Anwara was completed in November last year. Since December of the same year, boring activities have been going on through the TBM machine at the bottom of the river to install the second tube from Anwara to Patenga.
On the other hand, the construction work of Pichdhala road has also started from February this year through the first tube to be installed. In all, about 75 percent of the project has been completed so far.
The project director said that although the pace of work has slowed down in the Corona situation, additional manpower and sophisticated equipment and machineries have been added to the work. As a result, the pace of work has increased. Work is being taken forward with the aim of moving vehicles through the Karnafuli tunnel by December next year.
According to the Bangabandhu Tunnel Project, new economic possibilities are going to be opened in the port city of Chittagong around the tunnel. In addition, this will signal a revolutionary change in the communication system of the region.
A 5.35 km connecting road is being constructed at the end of Patenga and Anwara along the 3.40 km long main tunnel. The connecting road and the road inside the tunnel will have a total of 4 lanes. The one-way tunnel will be a two-lane road.
One tube road will run from Anwara to Patenga and the other tube will run from Patenga to Anwara. At the bottom of the Karnafuli river, each tube is 10.8 meters or 35 feet wide and 4.8 meters or about 16 feet high. The distance from one tube to the other is about 12 meters. The width of the tunnel is 700 meters and 3,400 meters in length.
