Bangladesh’s BRI Tunnel Unites Dhaka With Chittagong And Cox’s Bazaar
First South Asian Under-River Tunnel Will Significantly Assist Regional Trade & Bangladesh’s Export Manufacturing Capabilities
The Chinese built and BRI funded Karnaphuli Tunnel has opened and is the first under-river road tunnel in South Asia. It is expected to improve the Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway network and improve traffic for a catchment area of about 34 million people.
Dhaka is the Bangladeshi capital, and Chittagong its second largest city, and the largest seaport in Bay of Bengal. The tunnel runs under the Karnaphuli river, extending for 9.39 kilometres, with the tunnel making up 3.32 kilometres of the total length. The cost of the project is estimated at US$1.1 billion, of which around 50% was financed by the Exim Bank of China.
It was constructed by the China Communications Construction Company, while Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the construction site in October 2017.
When Dezan Shira & Associates (publishers of Silk Road Briefing) launching our independent research publication, Asian Investment Research last year, we decided that AIR would dedicate its first country specific issue to Bangladesh.
In light of all of the existing investment banking existing research, we decided that our AIR research would need to be different – value add. As such this document focusses specifically on 2021 actual investments and/or pledges, across asset classes, as well as major infrastructure projects which came on stream during 2021 or are coming on stream in 2022/23. This included the Karnaphuli Tunnel and numerous other Bangladeshi projects.
While all of these point to continued future growth, we have closed the report with the challenges Bangladesh continues to face in its development from a low income to a middle-income economy. It is only natural that bumps will be encountered along the way, and it is for this reason that while we are optimistic about Bangladesh’s potential, experienced advisory and research should also be undertaken to assess market conditions and operational risks.
Global supply chains are shifting and especially between Asia and Europe. We therefore anticipate Bangladesh being a significant component of the emerging Eurasian supply chains – with the Karnaphuli Tunnel being an immediate example of this.
The Bangladesh issue of Asia Investment Research, titled ‘Bangladesh Trade, Development and Economic Prospects In The Emerging Asian-European Supply Chain” can be downloaded here.
To contact us concerning investment into Bangladesh please email: bangladesh@dezshira.com
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