The authorities concerned appear to have resorted to a delaying tactic in accomplishing the job, said sources in Bangladesh Railway, although the allotments can be cancelled just on the ground that the leases were not made through open bidding.

The BNP government, at the fag end of its tenure, allotted four plots to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Millennium Holdings Limited (Hotel Hilton) and International Arbitration Centre violating environment and wetland conservation related laws.

The action deprived the government of a huge amount of revenue, as the prime public lands were leased out at a token price.

The communications ministry sold 0.66 decimals of land to BTMA and leased out 4.16 acres to Hilton. It leased out one acre of land to FBCCI at a token price of Tk1 lakh.

At present day market price, one acre of land in the location should cost more than Tk 150 crore, according to sources in the railway.

There was no public bidding for leasing out these pieces of land though it is a vital precondition as per railway's land management rules. The then communications minister made these anomalous deals applying his 'discretionary' authority.

LGRD and Cooperatives Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said in the last week of March that all the anomalous allotment of plots in the Begunbari Canal area would be cancelled and illegal structures would be removed to restore the capital's vital water body.

Director General of Bangladesh Railway Belayet Hossain said that he received a letter from the communications ministry two to three days ago, asking for documents of agreements between the government and the lessees.

"We will send the documents soon," said the DG. "It is the communications ministry that has to cancel the allotments."

According to sources in the railway, the DG forwarded files case by case to the ministry more than two months back for cancellation of allotments but railway authorities did not attach all the relevant documents like copies of agreements along with the files.

Law adviser of the communications ministry sent the files back to railway to make them complete. The adviser, Mujibur Rahman, said: "The file has not reached me yet."

Belayet Hossain earlier said that he had forwarded the files clarifying railway's position and on what terms and conditions the plots were allotted.

Adviser Anwarul Iqbal told The Daily Star earlier: "We requested the communications ministry to cancel the allotments." He told an inter-ministerial meeting on April 5 that the government has decided to cancel all the recent plot allotment in Begunbari Canal.

Joint Secretary (Railway) of the communications ministry Shafique Alam Mehdi said details of the matter were not in his knowledge. But a competent source said that the ministry sent two files back to the railway DG asking for documents of agreements.

A top official of the ministry said that two files regarding BTMA and International Arbitration Centre have been forwarded to the higher authorities with legal opinion for cancellation of application for allotment, as no letter of intent was issued in favour of these two organisations.

The government has recently undertaken a Tk 1, 600 crore project to construct a peripheral ring road and develop a drainage system to restore Begunbari Canal and Hatirjheel catchment area.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) earmarks the Begunbari Canal as a natural canal and clearly prohibits any change to its status.