Our Correspondent
CHITTAGONG, Jan 13: Experts and researchers at an international conference here on Saturday stressed the need for early construction of the proposed Karnaphuli tunnel to enhance connectivity between Dhaka and Chittagong.
"The two existing bridges over the Karnaphuli River will become
saturated within a few years and an additional crossing of the river would bring huge economic benefits to the country as it will be a catalyst to opening up of industrial areas south of the river," said Prof Dr Hossain Md Shahin.
Dr Shahin is a member of panel of experts, Multi-lane Karnaphuli tunnel project and teacher of Islamic University of Technology in Gazipur.
Southern University Bangladesh (SUB) and Institute of Engineers Bangladesh Chittagong Centre jointly organized the international conference, the first of its kind in the city, on the SUB campus at Mehdibag on the second day of a two-day conference on Research and Innovation in Civil Engineering.
Engineer Ali Ashraf, pro-vice-chancellor and head of Civil Engineering Department of the University, chaired the seminar on Multi-lane Road Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River. Engineer Kabir Ahmed, Project Director of the Multi-lane Karnaphuli Tunnel project and Chief Engineer of Bangladesh Bridges Authority, Dhaka also spoke.
Presenting a keynote paper jointly on the Karnaphuli immersed tunnel they said the river divides Chittagong city into two parts. One part is confined to the main city and the port and the other part is the area accommodating primarily heavy industries.
The possible solutions for crossing the river were a new bridge or an immersed tube or a bored tunnel under the riverbed. It would be difficult to build a bridge at the mouth of the river as it needs a very high deck level to prevent it being an obstacle to river traffic, they said.
As such, it was decided that a tunnel would present the best solution for a river crossing, they said, adding that two types of tunnels were investigated - immersed tube and bored tunnel.
The immersed tube method requires strict control over shipping operations during the construction which would be extremely difficult for the busy port.
It would put significant impact on shipping operations in
Chittagong. It was concluded that the immersed tube method is not workable. The most workable solution is the bored tunnel method, the experts said.
The alignment of the route will adopt an expressway standard as a dual-lane road with speed of 80 kilometres an hour.
The tunnel and approach roads are split into two distinct sections - one on the northwestern side of the river and the other on the southeastern side. The project route has a total length of 9,265 metres.
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