Special Correspondent

During the previous Awami League government, the transport and communication infrastructure sectors received the most allocation in the development budget.

A huge amount of money has been spent on construction, renovation and development of new roads, bridges, railways.

Local contractors have also worked with various foreign contractors in the sector. Among local contractors, Max Infrastructure Limited and Tama Construction have done the most money in the Ministry of Railways in the last one and a half decades. On the other hand, National Development Engineers Limited (NDE) is one of the top contracting firms in the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).

Other contractors in the top ten listed are Rana Builders, Hasan Techno Builders, Mozahar Enterprises, Moinuddin (Flute) Limited, Masood Hitech Engineering Limited, Spectra Engineers and Muhammad Aminul Haque.

Out of the local contractors working in Bangladesh Railway, Max Infrastructure Limited has got the highest amount of work in terms of money.

The company has worked on the construction and development of several railway infrastructures including Laksam-Chinki Astana, Kashiani-Gopalganj railway. Max is currently working on two ongoing railway projects. Out of them, the Dohazari-Cox's Bazar railway construction project is jointly working with a Chinese company worth 3 thousand 502 crores. And Max Infrastructure Limited is working on the Akhaura-Laksam railway project with two companies from China and Bangladesh at a cost of 3 thousand 473 crore rupees.

Gholam Mohammad Alamgir is the Chairman of the company. It is alleged that he is one of the contractors who got the most benefits during the previous government. Ghulam Mohammad Alamgir's statement was not available despite several attempts to inquire about this.

Apart from railways, Max Infrastructure has recently received development work worth 2 thousand 320 crores in the Dhaka-Sylhet highway development project. The company got the construction of a part of the road jointly with two Chinese contractors.

Another top railway contractor is Tama Construction. TAMA is jointly working with several contractors for the Dohazari-Cox's Bazar and Akhaura-Laksam railway construction projects worth Tk 6,161 crore. The owner of the company is Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan.

He once served as the Vice President of Noakhali District Awami League. He participated as an independent candidate in the last parliamentary elections and was defeated. Awami League organizing secretary and former state minister Mirza Azam is rumored to be involved with Tama Construction.

On the other hand, National Development Engineers Limited (NDE) is the top local contractor in the Roads and Highways Department. According to the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), a government procurement database, since September 2014, the agency has received 113 work orders from the Roads and Highways Department. The contract value of these works is more than 5 thousand 966 crore rupees. Besides roads, bridges, NDE also works in construction of various types of infrastructure including electricity, housing. The chairman of the company is Ashraf Uddin Sarkar.

Rana Builders is another top contractor of Roads and Highways Department. Since February 2014, the agency has received 422 work orders from the Roads and Public Ways Department. The contract value of these works is 5 thousand 714 crores. The owner of Rana Builders. Alam

In the investigation, it has been revealed that Md. has been involved in the contracting business for more than four decades. Alam has emerged mainly in the last decade. Earlier, Rana Builders was doing small jobs for various government agencies including Souz. Since 2010, the company started to receive major development works of Souz. Patuakhali Sheikh Russell Bridge, Khepupara Bridge, Mohipur Bridge, Jinjira-Dohar Highway, Jatrabari-Kanchpur Highway, Joydevpur-Tangail-Jamalpur Highway, Kanchpur-Bhairab-Sylhet-Jaflong Highway, Daulatdia-Khulna-Jesore Highway, Laksam-Maijdi Highway, Dhaka - Rana Builders has worked on several big projects including Mawa Expressway.

The owner of Rana Builders. Alam's nephew Nazmul Hasan (Pakhi). Hassan Techno Builders, owned by him, has bagged 420 works in the Roads and Public Ways Department since October 2015, with a contract value of Tk 4,787 crore. Similarly, Alam's nephew Zulfikar Hossain Masud got a job worth Tk 3,453 crore in the Roads and Public Ways Department since December 2017.

The owner of Rana Builders. Alam claimed that they got the job by following all the rules. He said to this representative, "All the works we have received have been done according to the proper tender." No one will find any mistake anywhere. After 2020 our workload has decreased. Government Procurement Procedure (EGP) is mainly responsible for this. There are many contractors on the road, whose work is high but the price is low. But in the tender process, the work is given to those who have more work. In this opportunity, many contracting companies have got unusual work in the past.

Mojahar Enterprises is another top contractor of the Roads and Highways Department. According to CPTU calculations, since December 2016, the institution has received 1,176 jobs. The contract value of these works is 4 thousand 105 crores.

Kazi Mozaharul Haque, owner of Mozahar Enterprises, is from Khulna. He is rumored to have established a contracting business with ties to an influential local family who are supporters of the Awami League.

Since February 2014, the contractor firm Moinuddin (Banshi) Limited has received 641 work orders from the Directorate of Roads and Highways. The contract value of these works is 4 thousand 60 crores. Since November 2016, Spectra Engineers Limited has received work orders worth Tk 3,189 crore from the Roads and Public Ways Department. The chairman of the organization Khan Md. Aftab Uddin
In recent years Naogaon Muhammad Aminul Haque Limited has emerged as the top contractor of Roads and Public Ways Department. The owner of the company is Aminul Haque of Naogaon. He started the contracting business in the nineties. Until 2015, Aminul Haque's works are countless. He also got a part of it through a joint venture with another company.

According to the calculation of CPTU, since December 2017, Aminul Haque Limited has received 3 thousand 811 work orders from the Directorate of Roads and Public Ways. The contract value of these works is 2 thousand 879 crores.

Aminul Haque's cell phone was called several times to get a statement on these issues, but he did not receive the call.

Among the top contractors of the Roads and Highways Department are MM Builders, Mahfuz Khan, Orient Trading and Builders and Abed Mansoor Construction. There are also allegations against some of these contracting companies for obtaining work orders using fake certificates. The Department of Roads and Public Ways has blacklisted companies like Mozahar Enterprise, Abed Mansoor Construction, Masud Hitech, Moinuddin (Flute) Limited, Rana Builders, Hasan Techno Builders in different parts of the country after investigating the allegations.

Syed Moinul Hasan, chief engineer of the directorate, told this correspondent, "We are taking action if we receive complaints." But now the incidence of one contractor getting more work has reduced a lot. It is an ongoing process. It will decrease further in the future. And the number of contractors against the work in the country is less. So many contractors have to work more and more.

According to infrastructure expert and professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET), the existing government procurement system is helping to build a large syndicate of contractors in Bangladesh. Hadiuzzaman. He told this representative, 'Every contractor has a limitation of his own capacity. If the amount of work is more than the financial capacity, manpower and equipment of the contractor, various complications arise. Work is delayed. The quality is bad. And in many cases, the contractor who gets more work, hands it over to a third party. Such incidents contribute to worsening the quality of work. To avoid such complications, it is necessary to make some fundamental changes in the tender process. Competition will be created in this sector if the conditions of the tenders called for are relaxed to allow more contractors to participate. Apart from this, every contractor should set a boundary in getting work.

Max Group Chairman Golam Mohammad Alamgir claimed that Max mainly worked on foreign funded projects.

He told the media , "We got the work orders by following the international competitive tender process. Our contract prices are also high as we work on foreign funded projects. We do not participate much in local financing activities. In many cases, we have received a work order with local funding, which has later been cancelled. Such an incident happened in Andharmanik Setu construction project. He also claimed that Max Group did not take any additional benefits from the authorities.