PM orders probe into 12-year delay of Khulna shipyard road project

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the prolonged delay in completing the Khulna Shipyard Road Expansion and Development Project, which has remained unfinished for over a decade despite multiple extensions.

The directive was issued during a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), held at the Cabinet Division Conference Room in Bangladesh Secretariat.

An official present at the meeting said the project was originally approved by ECNEC in July 2013 with an initial completion target of 2015. However, implementation did not begin on time and work only started in January 2022, leading to significant delays in execution.

Although the project has now achieved around 70 per cent physical progress after more than three years of construction work, officials said the implementation process faced major disruptions. The contractor reportedly became untraceable after withdrawing payments, leaving the road development work incomplete for an extended period. As a result, the contract was eventually cancelled on August 7 last year.

At the ECNEC meeting, the issue of repeated delays, contract mismanagement and failure to meet project targets was discussed in detail. The Prime Minister reportedly expressed dissatisfaction over the prolonged inaction and instructed authorities to identify the reasons behind the 12-year delay and fix accountability.

The project was initially awarded to a joint venture of Ataur Rahman Ltd and Mahabub Brothers Pvt Ltd under Khulna Development Authority (KDA) at a cost of Tk98.90 crore, with a two-year completion deadline set for June 2015. However, repeated extensions pushed the timeline back by nearly a decade, while the project cost increased to around Tk259 crore before being revised to Tk254 crore.

The Prime Minister also stressed the need to ensure strict accountability in public project implementation to prevent similar delays in future development works.

Senior ministers, advisers and secretaries from multiple ministries attended the ECNEC meeting, which was held ahead of the upcoming national budget for FY2026-27.