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Published : 08 Dec 2025, 07:43 PM
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is going to file a case against former road transport minister Obaidul Quader and 13 ex-secretaries for “misusing power” to allocate flats, built on land acquired for rehabilitating affected people of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway project, to themselves.
On Monday, Director General Md Akhtar Hossain confirmed the approval of the case by the national anti-graft agency.
He added that investigations and enforcement operations have established the truth of the allegations against them.
Media reports moved the ACC into action.
The approximately 20km-long Dhaka Elevated Expressway will end at Jatrabari’s Kutubkhali on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway from Kaula near the airport. The project, which started in 2010, has been partially opened. Work on the rest is ongoing.
A separate project has been undertaken to construct flats for the “resettlement” of the landowners whose land was acquired for this project.
The investigation reveals board members of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority took the project illegally and decided to implement it at the 106th and 107th board meetings. The meetings adopted the 2018 policy on long-term lease of flats to be constructed for the permanent staff of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority and its relevant departments.
But over 16 hectares have been acquired under the Dhaka Elevated Expressway PPP project for the resettlement of the affected people, the ACC probe revealed. The acquired land was used to construct permanent housing for government officials on a 99-year lease, ignoring the purpose stated in the gazette, which is illegal, the ACC probe said.
The report states the bridge authority did not obtain mandatory approval, such as the one required from the Ministry of Land under Section 19(1) of the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act 2017, to go ahead with its housing construction.
The bridge authority cannot take such a project under its own law and the project was undertaken solely with the purpose of getting personally benefited through misuse of power.
The “Long-Term Lease Policy–2018” was approved and implemented without being published in the gazette, which is a clear violation of the law, the ACC alleged.
On Jun 14, the Bangla daily Prothom Alo ran a report on secretaries getting flats at cheap rates in buildings constructed on land for the affected people.
