South Korean Hyundai Rotem Company has supplied 10 locomotives to Bangladesh Railway deviating from some clauses of the contract, a probe committee has found.
The three-member committee, led by an additional secretary of the railways ministry, has blamed Hyundai and a firm hired by BR for the pre-shipment inspection for this, three people who are aware of the probe findings told The Daily Star.
The committee has recently submitted its report to the ministry and a meeting in this regard, chaired by Railways Secretary Salim Reza, was held at the Rail Bhaban yesterday. A representative from Hyundai was also present.
At the meeting, the secretary informed the participants about the probe findings and formed a technical committee led by Mohammad Hassan Mansur, the previous director of the project, to find a solution.
Ignoring its own probe committee s recommendation to take punitive measures against 21 officials for purchase anomalies, the railways ministry has promoted one of them and started the process for another.
Of the officials, all but one continue to serve in their positions without facing any departmental action in the last three months since the submission of the probe report.
One official was suspended last year over a separate allegation.
The three-member body, formed by the ministry on August 25 last year, found the officials involved in irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 protective materials at higher prices, even before the completion of any tender process.
The railways ministry has reconstituted a committee investigating a South Korean company for violating some clauses of the contract under which 10 locomotives have been supplied to the Bangladesh Railway.
The changes in the probe committee came more than three months after Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan ordered the formation of the committee, which was supposed to complete the work within 15 working days.
In the meantime, the locomotives have been lying idle at a railways workshop in Chattogram s Pahartoli for around five months, at a time when the BR is struggling to run its operation with a big number of outdated engines.
A South Korean company has supplied 10 locomotives to Bangladesh Railway allegedly violating some clauses of the contract, creating an impasse over the official handover of the train engines.
The locomotives have been lying idle at a railways workshop in Chattogram s Pahartoli for the last four months. It has happened when the BR is struggling to run its operation with a huge number of outdated engines.
The metre-gauge diesel electric locomotives bought under a project worth around Tk 300 crore arrived at the workshop after they were unloaded at the Chattogram port early September.
Later in its report, a commissioning committee said the technical specifications of three capital components of the supplied locomotives did not match the specifications mentioned in the agreement.