A study has found a 3.4km passageway to be feasible for it at the estuary of the river as it ensures connectivity of the Chittagong city with the proposed deep-sea port and Cox’s Bazar, the tourist town.
Officials said the feasibility study had confirmed the multi-lane tunnel route would pass through the river with Navy College on one side and Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company (KAFCO) on the other bank.
"The tunnel downstream has been found to be more suitable than other sites as it will also be connected with the
outer ring road on surface, which is being planned to pass along the Patenga sea beach," said an official at Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA).
He said the tunnel would help reduce the road distance between Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, apart from facilitating the heavy highway traffic on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway by relieving it from entering the Chittagong city to go to other parts of the district.
The joint-venture of Chinese and Hong Kong consulting firms — China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) and ARUP, which conducted the feasibility study over the last two years — has proposed the tunnel with a total length of over 6km including two approach roads. The estimated cost comes to USD 692M.
It also found two other locations, which are very close to three Karnaphuli road bridges, on the river’s upstream. But those might turn out to be difficult for implementation of the tunnel.
The study said the traffic movement would be divided into two separate tunnels, each having two road lanes. It kept in consideration the draught and navigability of the ships using the Chittagong sea port.
BBA, the executing agency of the tunnel project, launched the feasibility study from its own funds to determine the economic, financial and technical viability of the construction of the multi-lane tunnel under the river Karnaphuli.
The officials said the tunnel would help expedite industrial growth and urbanisation in other parts of the river.
The width of the river is about 700m and its depth is 9 to 11m and it flows into the Bay of Bengal 19km downstream from Chittagong.
