Chattogram Scraps BDT 25,000 Crore Monorail Project Over Fraud

The Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) has cancelled a monumental BDT 25,000 crore monorail project following revelations that the agreement was signed with a fraudulent representative. City Mayor Dr Shahadat Hossain officially revoked all Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and contracts, bringing a sudden halt to the highly ambitious mass transit initiative.

The multi-billion-crore project unravelled after the Egyptian Embassy in Dhaka sent a formal dispatch to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA). The embassy explicitly stated that Kawsar Alam Chowdhury, who had brokered the deal on behalf of the ‘Arab Contractors Orascom Peninsula Consortium’, possessed no authorised connection to the Egyptian conglomerate. Following a rigorous verification of the diplomatic correspondence, the CCC concluded that the agreements retained no legal validity.

The partnership began when the CCC signed an initial MoU with the purported consortium to conduct a feasibility study for the port city’s monorail network. Mr Chowdhury had presented himself as the legitimate delegate. The momentum grew later that year when both parties signed a definitive agreement to advance the mega-project. Mayor Hossain had subsequently issued a demi-official letter to the Executive Chairman of BIDA to expedite regulatory approvals. This prompted BIDA to engage key state bodies, including the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, the Local Government Division, and the Power Division, elevating the project to the highest tiers of government policymaking before the deception came to light.

Formal notifications regarding the immediate cancellation have been circulated to BIDA, the Local Government Division, the Africa Wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the chief engineer and legal officers of the CCC to prevent further unauthorised exploitation of the void contracts.

Project Status and Future Transit Framework

Despite the setback, efforts to modernise Chattogram’s congested transport infrastructure remain underway. The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) is currently drafting a comprehensive transport master plan for the port city. Jointly funded by the government and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), this strategic initiative is slated to run until December 2026.

A high-level technical team from the DTCA recently completed an on-site inspection of Chattogram’s worsening traffic corridors. The authority indicated that the final choice between a traditional Metro Rail, a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, or a Monorail will depend heavily on data-driven assessments of passenger demand and local engineering constraints.

Mayor Dr Shahadat Hossain has consistently championed the monorail blueprint, arguing it represents a more cost-effective and pragmatic alternative to more expensive subterranean or elevated metro systems. The CCC had already submitted a detailed proposal to the DTCA, aiming to conclude feasibility studies by this December and commence physical construction next year. While the uncovering of the fraudulent representative has disrupted this specific timeline, the city’s search for an enduring transit solution continues under the broader DTCA framework.