During festivals and public holidays, traffic over the Padma and Jamuna bridges and other major routes surges several-fold. The costly Karnaphuli Tunnel in Chattogram, built under the now-ousted Awami League government, draws no such swell. Even at peak hours, vehicle numbers remain meagre, and holiday periods create no extra load. The bridges division’s frustration with a project conceived amid high expectations has consequently deepened.

The tunnel’s own feasibility study had forecast daily traffic to reach more than 28,000 vehicles today. In reality, however, it carries just over 3,000. The project, which cost over BDT 100 billion, now runs at a heavy operating loss.

Bridges division figures show that during festivals, traffic on the Padma and Jamuna bridges climbs to two or three times normal levels. Data for this year’s Eid-ul-Fitr lay out the pattern. As the festival neared, traffic rose sharply on both the Padma and the Jamuna bridges. The Karnaphuli Tunnel recorded no comparable rise.

Relevant officials say that ahead of Eid, every major road, bridge and elevated expressway in the country buckles under the weight of traffic, often triggering tailbacks and public misery. The Dhaka–Chattogram highway, a vital artery, was heavily congested at several points before this year’s holiday. Yet despite a sustained publicity drive around the tunnel’s benefits, most motorists bypass it.

Built under the Karnaphuli River with Chinese loans, the tunnel was projected to handle 17,000 vehicles a day from the outset. It initially managed between 4,000 and 5,000. That figure has since sunk to 3,000–3,500. While traffic on most roads, bridges and expressways more than doubled in the days before Eid, the tunnel told an entirely different story.

Officials blame a flawed feasibility forecast and the failure to finish the connecting road network on time. They say the ousted Awami League government had drawn up sweeping development plans for southern Chattogram, including a deep-sea port stretching from the river’s southern bank to Cox’s Bazar, several large power stations and multiple economic zones. The tunnel itself was completed on schedule, but those projects stalled. The protracted failure to realise the “One City, Two Towns” concept — the Chinese-inspired model behind the tunnel — has turned the megaproject into a white elephant.

Asked about the shortfall, the bridge authority’s chief engineer, Quazi Ferdous, told Banik Barta: “It’s true that the tunnel hasn’t drawn the projected number of vehicles. But the road network and economic activity around it haven’t developed as expected.” He said there was no doubt numbers would rise steadily, and that once the economic zone in South Chattogram, the deep-sea port, the marine drive road and the planned tourist city centred on Cox’s Bazar were completed, the tunnel would be regarded as a critical artery for the region.

The project’s financial arithmetic bears out the strain. On November 18, 2022, the government appointed the builder China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) to maintain the tunnel and collect tolls under a five-year contract worth BDT 9.83 billion. That leaves the bridges division with an annual operating bill of BDT 1.97 billion. Because toll revenue trails so far behind, the division has cut daily running costs from more than BDT 3.7 million to BDT 2 to 2.2 million over the past 18 months.

The feasibility study had forecast 28,305 vehicles a day in 2025. The actual average is 3,800. The resulting revenue gap has pushed the project worth BDT 106.89 billion — another white elephant inherited from the past government — deep into loss. Shoddy survey work, flawed planning and neglect of the connecting infrastructure have left it foundering.

Superintending engineer Syed Rajab Ali told Bonik Barta that the bridge division’s large structures elsewhere connect several districts, whereas the tunnel serves a narrower corridor. “Motorists can still reach Cox’s Bazar and the upazilas in Chattogram via road bridges, which is why we don’t see the Eid rush like on other bridges.” He added that only upgraded approach roads and a quickening of economic activity would lift traffic to the projected levels.