Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Dhaka to Sylhet Highway Four Lane Up-gradation


Dhaka-Sylhet highway will be upgraded into four lanes. Up gradation work will begin in next January 2020. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement with the Economic Relations Department (ERD) of the government in this regard. Land acquisition and survey work is now ongoing.

By signing this agreement, last few years uncertainty has been removed for upgrading the highway to four lanes. The information gathered from the Road Transport and Highways Department of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge.


According to information, ADB has recently signed an agreement with ERD to upgrade the 226 km long Dhaka-Sylhet highway into four lanes. Under the agreement, ADB will start visible work on the development of the highway in the year 2020. ADB was the first to conduct four lanes expanding work in 2013-14. Later they could not move much further due to some complexity of who would start the up gradation work on the highway.

Now they have been contracted to do the work again. Therefore their previous survey needs to be re-evaluated. So ADB is doing a new survey. Meanwhile, the Roads and Highways Department has started the acquisition for this four-lane up-gradation project. Already, the government has allocated Tk. 3885 Crore for land acquisition and road side utility works. Of this, the allocation in the current fiscal year is Tk. 851 crore.




According to the information, the government was discussing with the ADB to start upgrading the Dhaka-Sylhet highway to four lanes. But in October 2017, the government signed a G2G-based agreement with China Harbor Engineering Company for this work. The project work would start at the beginning of 2018 but the cost proposed by China Harbor Engineering for the project was about 42 percent higher than the estimates of the Department of Roads and Highways (RHD). Later the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges did not accept their proposal.

There was a series of discussions between the two sides. But no solution were found, the work is suspended. At one point, the government decided to complete the project with own financing. DPP was sent to the Planning Commission, but it was sent back for further amendments. The road department adjusts it and sends the revised DPP to the Planning Commission.


Then the Planning Minister mentioned the project as too expensive and ordered to find if there’s any outside funding for it. Soon the project was halted. However, it was said that the project would start before the last national election with the government's own financing. In the end, the government came out of this decision.

The Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways have already been upgraded into four lanes. Up gradation of the Dhaka-Tangail highway is almost completed. Now the ADB will fund the up-gradation of Dhaka-Sylhet four lane projects. The project was undertaken in order to expand the previously two-lane highway into four lanes.

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Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Karnaphuli Tunnel Project in Chattogram | Update


Construction work of the first tunnel in Bangladesh beneath the Karnaphuli River (Bangabandhu Sheikh Majibur Rahman Tunnel) in Chattogram is ongoing full swing. After completion, this will be the longest tunnel in South Asia. Along with the main tunnel, other infrastructure development works are in full progress. After completion of the Karnaphuli tunnel, the socio-economic development of the Chittagong region will accelerate significantly. It will contribute a lot to the country's economy.

The project concerned said that the longest tunnel in South Asia will be opened in December 2022. Overall 48 percent of the whole work has been completed. Engineers, workers involved in this project said that the construction of the tunnel is going on fast. Hopefully, the contractor for this mega projects ‘China Communication and Construction Company Limited’ (CCCC) will be able to finish the project within schedule time.


The tunnel will be opened for vehicle movement by December 2022. Everyone is working hard to build the tunnel within shortest period of time. Work is in progress to install two tubes 18 to 31 meters deep beneath the Karnaphuli River. The tube length will be 2,450 meters, already 620 meters tube work has been completed.




Construction of approach roads and over bridges on the both sides of the Karnaphuli River is also going on rapidly. On the east side of the tunnel, 200-meter open cut, 195-meter cut and cover, 500-meter approach road and 25-meter working shaft is getting ready. Construction work of open cuts, cuts and covers, approach roads and working shafts are also in progress at the west side. Apart from this, other infrastructure development works are ongoing full swing.

Engineers, Officials, Employees and workers have been working day and night long to finish the construction of the tunnel within the stipulated time. The government took initiative to construct the tunnel beneath the Karnaphuli River to connect Chittagong city and Anwara upazila in the same way as 'One City to Town', like Shanghai city in China.



Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and China President Xi Jinping together inaugurated the construction work of the tunnel on 14 October 2016. China is financing almost the whole project cost around Taka 9,500 Crore. The tunnel will start from the Naval Academy Point Patenga and will end at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer (CUFL) area in Anwara Upazila.



Latest tunnel building technology called Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) which is used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. TBM is using to construct the Bangabandhu Sheikh Majibur Rahman Tunnel beneath the Karnaphuli River.  When the tunnel is completed, the economic picture of whole Chittagong division will change. It will help a lot to terming Chattogram as the hub of all commercial activities.

Chittagong city will be extended to Anwara. The capacity of Chittagong port will increase. Heavy industrial plant will be set up in Anwara upazila. There will be a huge change in the communication system in the area. Traffic congestion in the Chattogram city will reduce. Centering this tunnel, a modern communication system will be developed connecting Dhaka - Cumilla - Feni - Chattogram - Cox's Bazar, which will eventually be connected to the Asian Highway network.

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