A contractor firm tasked with the construction of Nabinagar-Shibpur-Radhika regional highway in Brahmanbaria has withdrawn the entire Tk 53 crore bill for the project without completing it.

The firm -- Rana Builders Limited -- has also withdrawn half of the security deposit.

Three officials concerned with the Roads and Highways Department allegedly colluded with the firm to make this possible.

Contacted, Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed, executive engineer of RHD in Brahmanbaria, confirmed the matter.

"The bill was withdrawn, although the work was not completed. I was not posted here when this happened. The matter has already been informed to the higher authorities through a letter," he said.

He also provided a copy of the letter to The Daily Star.

According to the letter, the contractor firm was requested several times to explain the construction work on the road, but they did not respond. Later, the department found a huge discrepancy between the final bill submitted by the contractor and the amount of work actually realised.

An explanation has been sought from Brahmanbaria RHD as to why legal action would not be taken against the accused firm as per the rules for fraudulently withdrawing final bill without completing the work, the letter added.

The 11.71km regional highway is scheduled to be completed through five packages under a Tk 439 crore project to connect Nabinagar and Bancharampur upazilas with Brahmanbaria district town.

If the Banchharampur-Araihazar Meghna Bridge project approved by Encec is commissioned, this road will become crucial as an alternative link between Dhaka and India's Tripura via Brahmanbaria.

Despite extending the project implementation period by three years in two phases, citing various pretexts, the firm did not complete the construction work.

Sources said this regional highway construction project was approved on August 1, 2017, to be implemented by June 2020 and completed by 2021. The deadline was extended twice, to June 2024.

Documents of the RHD revealed the contractor withdrew the final bill on June 30, 2021, stating that the project work was completed on June 7 that year. On September 1, 2021, it also withdrew 50 percent of the security deposit.

The RHD office in Brahmanbaria is under Cumilla Circle. When Rana Builders started the construction work, the superintendent engineer of Cumilla Circle was Rana Priyo Barua, the Brahmanbaria RHD executive engineer was Pankaj Bhowmik, and the additional chief engineer of Cumilla region was Showkat Ali.

Allegedly, these three officials were involved in paying bills to Rana Builders without realising the work.

Pankaj Bhowmik is currently posted in Jamalpur, Rana Priyo in Noakhali Circle, and Showkat Ali in Mymensingh.

Contacted, Pankaj Bhowmik said, "Due to the complexity regarding land acquisition, we couldn't handover the project site to the contractor on behalf of RHD. As a result, the contractor couldn't complete the work."

The two other officials could not be reached for comments.

Contractor Mohammad Alam of Rana Builders echoed Pankaj Bhowmik's statement.

"There were complications with land acquisition. Our people were physically assaulted by landowners who were deprived of compensation for acquisition. So, we could not complete the work. However, despite withdrawing the bill, they still owe me Tk 1.31 crore as the remaining security deposit. We have other ongoing works in Brahmanbaria. So, we won't run away anywhere without completing this work," he said.

However, when this correspondent asked about the reason behind withdrawing the bill before completing the work, both Pankaj and Alam evaded the question.