No Internal Audit in Four Years on Aricha-Tangail Highway Project, Flawed Design Raises Accident Fears

The Tk 1,635.10 crore Aricha-Tangail highway development project was meant to ease vehicle pressure on Dhaka's Savar-Nabinagar and Tangail's main highways. But an investigation into the Aricha (Barangail)-Ghior-Daulatpur-Nagarpur-Tangail regional highway (R-506) has uncovered widespread irregularities, stemming from officials' negligence from the very start, part-time staffing, and a flawed design prepared without any consulting firm.

The Roads and Highways Department says construction was contracted in 10 packages (WP-01 to WP-10). The WP-01 package for 17.50 kilometres under the Manikganj roads division is worth Tk 303.05 crore. The remaining nine packages under the Tangail roads division total Tk 596.03 crore, including Tk 112.82 crore for the 5.278-kilometre Tangail link road under WP-02, Tk 59.56 crore for WP-03, Tk 64 crore for WP-04, Tk 44.97 crore for five bridges under WP-09, and Tk 35.91 crore for another five bridges under WP-10.

Although regular internal audits are mandatory to keep transactions of this size transparent, the Roads and Highways Department completed no internal audit in the project's four years, allowing irregularities such as bill payments against hand receipts to stay buried, the investigation found. The Finance Ministry's external audit team later raised 10 serious objections totalling Tk 24,97,10,501, nine of which remained unsettled as of June this year.

Rules require a full-time project director (PD) for round-the-clock supervision of a Tk 1,600 crore project. Yet in four years and four months of implementation there was no full-time PD, and the post changed hands three times. All three officers — Md Sabuj Uddin Khan, Syed Aslam Ali and current PD AKM Azad Rahman — ran the project as an additional charge while serving as additional chief engineers of the department's Dhaka zone.

Under development circulars, the project implementation committee (PIC) and project steering committee (PSC) were supposed to hold 17 meetings, one every three months; officials held only six by May 2026. Ignoring Planning Commission guidelines, no detailed feasibility study was done by a neutral third-party consultant either — the department's own brief study left serious flaws in the road's hydrological and technical design.

The design flaws include the absence of 'approach slabs' at the joints of PC girder bridges, meaning fast vehicles will face severe jolts entering and leaving bridges, damaging their foundations. The main pavement was widened to 10.30 metres, but the old bridges and culverts in between were left at just 7.30 metres, creating bottleneck and head-on collision risks at narrow bridge mouths.

Underpasses were designed only 4 to 5 metres high, risking overloaded cargo trucks, cranes and large fire service vehicles getting stuck. No scientific U-turn was provided on the main national highway (N5) for Tangail-to-Aricha traffic — only a single risky median opening.

No designated 'stack yard' or register was kept at contractors' site laboratories for construction materials that failed testing, and no failed test reports were recorded in the main lab register — opening the way for rejected, substandard rods and stones to be quietly used in the road. No traffic signalmen were deployed for safety on diversion roads during bridge and culvert construction either, resulting in vehicles falling into ditches and pedestrian accidents.

Delays by the roads department and district administrations held up land acquisition by one year in the Manikganj section and 14 months in the Tangail section. Although costs did not rise, the deadline was extended by 24 months to 31 December 2027. Meanwhile, many people who lost land have suffered for four years without receiving government compensation.

Locals fear the road and culvert built alongside Nilua Beel will harm the wetland's environment, water flow and biodiversity. Yasmin Banu Khandaker, a former associate professor of zoology at Manikganj Government Debendra College, said the construction could obstruct the natural flow of water, and since Nilua Beel is an important habitat for various native fish species, fish breeding and life cycles could be adversely affected.

Professor Dr Hasib Mohammad Ahsan of BUET's civil engineering department, who directs the Accident Research Institute, said widening a road is not enough in highway construction — bridges, culverts, junctions and traffic safety must be considered together. Narrow bridges and culverts in the middle of a wide road increase accident risk; design flaws must be identified and corrected before construction, and safety assessments with necessary measures are needed even after construction ends.

Department of Environment director (clearance) Mahmud Iqbal Md Shamim said an EIA would have allowed environmental damage to be assessed; no one has complained about this project, and action will be taken if a written complaint about damage in the Nilua Beel area is received. Executive engineer Dr Cynthia Azmiri Khan, recently transferred from Tangail to the Dhaka roads division, said internal audits take place every year; told that an IMED report claims no audit was held, she said, 'That shouldn't happen — perhaps they misunderstood.' On implementation without an environmental assessment, she said the matter is old, EIAs may not have been examined so seriously then, and roads and bridges were built exactly as designed.

Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said transparency, accountability and effective supervision are essential to ensure proper use of public money in large development projects; when internal audits are not held, objections remain unsettled for long and supervision is lacking, questions arise over project management transparency, and authorities must settle objections quickly and investigate irregularity allegations impartially. Manikganj deputy commissioner Nazmun Ara Sultana said the roads division fully looks after the project and action will be taken under the law if any complaint is received.