Karnaphuli tunnel with daily expenditure of 37 lakhs and income of 12 lakhs

One of the biggest projects of the Awami League government is the tunnel built under the Karnaphuli river in Chittagong. Although this project has been taken considering the economic corridor, there is not much investment there. Not even a fraction of the number of vehicles that were supposed to run in the feasibility study are running there. Traffic is not moving through the tunnel as expected so far. As a result toll collection is decreasing. Toll collection and maintenance costs are far greater than revenue.

According to the bridge authorities, an average of more than 4,500 vehicles have traveled through the tunnel so far. It was predicted that at least four times as many vehicles would run. Daily average income from toll from tunnel is 11 lakh 80 thousand taka. On the other hand, the average daily expenditure for collection and maintenance of this toll is 37.5 lakh taka.

The original length of this tunnel under the Karnaphuli river is 3.32 km. It is the first under-river tunnel in the country. The tunnel was built with Chinese loans and Bangladesh government funding.

Communication expert Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) Director of Accident Research Institute Professor Md. Hadiuzzaman told a press, “If our mega projects remain as transportation corridors, then there is definitely a big concern in debt repayment.” These projects must be converted from transportation corridors to economic corridors. In that case, to make the economic corridor, foreign direct investment will be required. There are industrial heavy factories. We see a big risk if we can't take the necessary steps to attract investment in a well-planned manner.'

This expert said, 'We don't see the opportunity of such a big investment being just a transportation corridor. The loans of these projects are not in rupees, we have to repay them in dollars. If we can't bring investment, if we can't bring dollars, there is definitely a big risk.'

Hadiuzzaman said that the Bangabandhu tunnel was made keeping in mind the economic corridors like Mirsrai and Matarbari. If we can't launch them at the right time, then this investment will fall flat, there is no doubt about it.

RAR/Sa.A