People make their way through a flooded road in Munshiganj on the outskirts of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, on July 27, 2020. Almost half of Bangladesh remained in the grip of floods on Monday with scores of casualties reported. According to the daily flood situation report of the country's disaster response coordination center, the floods have killed 119 people in 21 (out of 64) districts since June 30.Photo:Xinhua

The first underwater tunnel in Bangladesh, the left line of the Karnaphuli River bottom tunnel project, was excavated on Sunday using a made-in-China super-diameter slurry-pressure-balance tunnel boring machine (TBM), according to media reports. 

The TBM, which is 94 meters long and weighs more than 2,200 tons, was developed by the Tianhe Mechanical Equipment Manufacturing Co. It is the first super-diameter slurry-pressure-balance TBM to be self-developed and exported by China, Science and Technology Daily reported. 

The TBM uses several self-developed technologiessuch as an automatic mud water circulation system. 

The underwater tunnel, once completed, will reduce the time it takes to drive from Hittagong Shah Amanat International Airport to the Hittagong industrial park from four hours to 20 minutes. 

As an important project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Karnaphuli River bottom tunnel project is expected to boost local tourism and industrial development, and increase employment and export opportunities, the report noted. 

The Padma Bridge, another BRI project in Bangladesh, is now under construction.