Karnaphuli Tunnel: Daily expense 3.7 million, income 1 million
Till the Matarbari deep-sea port is opened in 2030, the traffic won’t increase as anticipated.
As many as 18,485 vehicles are supposed to cross daily, while 3,910 are crossing instead. The gap between the income and the expense has widened to around Tk 1 billion (100 crore) in a year. Experts believe there’s no prospect of anticipated income even in five years.
Drivers of different vehicles are not using the first-ever tunnel in the country, built under the riverbed of the Karnaphuli in Chattogram, as much as expected. While 18,000 vehicles were projected to cross the tunnel daily in its first year, fewer than 4,000 vehicles are currently using it.
Although more than Tk 1 million (Tk 10.37 lakh) is being earned from toll collection, the cost of maintenance and operation is Tk 3.7 million (Tk 37.46 lakh). The gap between income and expenditure has widened to almost Tk 1 billion (Tk 100 crore) in one year.
Experts believe there is little prospect of this disappointing situation changing in the next five years. The tunnel was primarily intended to serve as the main route for transporting goods to and from the deep-sea port at Matarbari in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar. Additionally, traffic in the tunnel was expected to increase due to industrialization in south Chattogram and along the coast.
However, the implementation of the Matarbari deep-sea port has been postponed by three years, meaning it will not open before 2030.
Meanwhile, the industrial zones that were supposed to be established in the southern parts of Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar have also not been implemented.
In this situation, today—Tuesday—marks one year since traffic officially began using the tunnel. The tunnel was opened for use on 29 October last year, and it was inaugurated by then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina the day before.
Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, told Prothom Alo that if the Matarbari sea port becomes operational and the economic zones in Cox’s Bazar and Anwara, Chattogram, are established in the future, there will be a need for the tunnel. However, these projects have not yet materialized.
It can now certainly be said that there was no need to build the tunnel at this time. If there is no traffic and no income, what could be the purpose of constructing it? One objective may have been to gain praise, while another reason could be corruption. Now, we are discussing how to increase traffic and revenue with this tunnel.
The actual length of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman tunnel built underneath the Karnaphuli river is 3.32 kilometres. The tunnel has been built with loans from China and funding from the Bangladesh government. The project has been implemented by Bangladesh Bridge Authority.
In the beginning the project cost was calculated to be about Tk 84.47 billion (Tk 8,447 crore). Later, the cost increased to Tk 106.89 billion (Tk 10,689 crore). Out of that, Tk 60.7 billion (Tk 6,070 crore) has been taken as loan from the EXIM bank in China.
3,910 vehicles running instead of 18,485
According to the estimation of the project implementation agency there was a forecast of an average of 18,485 vehicles using the tunnel daily in 2024. But in reality not even one-fourth of that predicted number is being met.
As per the data of Bangladesh Bridges Authority, a total of 1.4 million (1,411,412) vehicles have crossed the tunnel from 28 October of last year till 22 October of the current year. That means, an average of 3,910 vehicles have used the tunnel daily. That is 14,575 less than the predicted number.
Due to the decline in traffic as compared to the expectation, there has been a huge blow to the revenue. So far, Tk 374.4 million (Tk 37.44 crore) has been collected in toll from the tunnel.
There has been a daily income of Tk 1 million (Tk 10.37 lakh) only. Meanwhile the daily expenses stands at Tk 3.7 million (Tk 37.46 lakh). That means Tk 1.36 billion (Tk 136.72 crore) is being in a year.
According to Moinul Islam, former professor at the economics department of Chittagong University the construction of a tunnel is a farsighted project. While giving explanation he said that the tunnel would not be used according to its capacity in the first five years of its inauguration. So, the toll collection would not be enough to fulfill the maintenance and repair cost during this period.
For the proper use of the tunnel, a marine drive would have to be constructed from Mirsarai industrial city to Cox’s Bazar via Anwara, Banshkhali, Pekua and Matarbari. Industrial, tourist and residential zones would be established throughout this area in future. But, that will take time.
After the Matarbari deep sea port in Maheshkhali of Cox’s Bazar and the Mirsarai economic zone is launched the use of the tunnel will be increased. This tunnel will have a huge impact on the economy of this region for the next 100 years. From that point of view, it cannot be said that there’s no necessity of this project. However, questions need to be raised regarding the cost of the project, he added.