The loss of 142 crore for the Railway Minister’s wish

Nurul Islam Sujan went on a visit to China after taking charge as Railway Minister. Going there, he was impressed by the modern railway station. He expressed his ‘intention’ to build such a beautiful railway station in Bangladesh as well.

Then he got the idea that such a station could be built under the Padma Rail Link Project. By that time, the design work of all the stations under that project has been completed. There is talk of changing the design of the station and wasting huge money to fulfill the minister’s wishes. Nachorbanda Minister still decided that the broken junction station of Faridpur should be built on the model of China.

Nurul Islam Sujan enlisted the cousin sons of the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as part of his wish. One of them is the then Chief Whip of Parliament Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury (Liton Chowdhury) and his brother Mojibur Rahman Chowdhury (Nixon Chowdhury), former Member of Parliament from Bhanga area.

He took them to the Prime Minister’s office. Conceptual design is presented. The then Prime Minister agreed to the proposal. The issue of wastage remains neglected. The process of constructing luxury stations in areas like broken junctions started at high cost. Generally, the construction cost of each station is 8 to 10 crores.

But due to the wish of then railway minister Nurul Islam Sujan, Tk 142 crore is being spent more. It takes more time. The railway is planned to open for train traffic by November 20 or any time thereafter. But as the work is not completed, the broken junction station will be fully operational later; In April next year.

Nurul Islam Sujan, the railway minister of the ousted Hasina government, is currently in jail. The then Chief Whip of Parliament Liton Chowdhury and his brother Nixon Chowdhury are in hiding. Due to this, it was not possible to take their statements regarding the waste of this huge amount of money by the government.

The construction of the station may cost around 150 crore rupees. There was a target of spending an additional 12 crore rupees for the design of this station. However, as objections were raised in the meeting of the ministry, later 2 percent of the total cost was considered for design. As such, at least 3 crore rupees are being lost in the design revision.

In this regard, Director General of Bangladesh Railway Sardar Shahadat Ali told our time that after taking charge as DG, I visited the station and saw the appearance of the station for the first time. Not only the station, I saw many buildings adjacent to the station for a kilometer.

The reason for the construction of these buildings is said to be the accommodation of railway officials and employees. It was not understood why there would be so many people visiting this place. Apart from that, the size and style of the station is surprising. A lot of money was spent, I think. But when I saw there was nothing to do. All construction works including ancillary installation are nearing completion.

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Credit: Dainikamadersomoy

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