Buyers who paid for shop allocations in Tangail’s Tk49 crore Biboroton Multipurpose Commercial Complex are at woes as the project remains unfinished after a decade.
Construction of the district council owned complex began in 2015 at old bazaar beside the new bus terminal in the town. A prolonged standoff between Tangail Zila Parishad and the Public Works Department (PWD) over land ownership brought the project to a halt.
A decade later, the site remains unfinished, leaving more than 250 shop buyers, many of whom paid the full amount, in deep frustration, financial loss and uncertainty.
The PWD has accused the district council of grabbing its land to construct the structure. According to PWD officials, around 75 per cent of the project area, now worth over Tk30 crore, belongs to their department.
PWD claims the ongoing construction must either be demolished or handed over to them. The district council, however, insists it will continue the legal fight to retain the land.
PWD’s executive engineer Shambhu Ram Pal said, “The current market value of the occupied land exceeds Tk30 crore. We cannot simply give it up. The building must either come under PWD’s control or be demolished. A joint decision by the two ministries may be required to resolve the matter.”
Tangail Zila Parishad’s chief executive officer Shamsun Nahar Swapna said the PWD’s claim must be verified first.
“We have discussed the matter with higher authorities several times. Once they visit the site, further decisions will be taken. We intend to continue the legal process,” she said.
A field visit revealed that although the original plan aimed for a ten-storey building, construction has only reached the second floor.
Documents show the district council began constructing the complex on 1 acre 52 decimals of land in 2015, with plans for a ten-storey structure (initially capped at six storeys in the first phase). The initiative was taken by then district council chairman and Tangail Awami League president Fazlur Rahman Khan Faruk.
Before construction began, 262 out of the proposed 424 shops were leased out. The pricing was fixed at Tk10,000 per square foot. The council later verbally allocated many of the remaining shops, allegedly collecting crores of taka in the process.
Fazlur Rahman Khan could not be reached after repeated attempts for comment on the matter.
Multiple buyers allege that after taking money, the authorities changed the main design, reduced shop sizes and arbitrarily altered shop serial numbers.
One former district council official seeking anonymity described the project as ‘an unprecedented case of financial plunder’.
He claimed that the chairman used political influence to obtain approvals from various public agencies and pushed ahead with construction on PWD land ‘by sheer force’. He further alleged that the district council office had become a parallel political headquarters for the Awami League in the district.
The PWD filed a case with the Land Survey Tribunal in 2014 claiming ownership of the land. The initial verdict went in favour of the district council, but PWD later regained ownership through an appeal. The district council has since filed another appeal, leaving the case pending for years.
Shop buyers say their decade-long investment has been frozen with no return in sight.
Professor Sheikh Farid of Nagarpur Janata Degree College, who was allocated 32 shops on the ground floor through a lottery, paid Tk7.2 lakh but still has no possession.
“We invested our hard-earned money ten years ago. The district council has not handed over our shops till today,” he said.
