Earlier, as the construction work continued in full swing, completing up to 30 percent of the work ahead of schedule, engineers of the Roads and Highways Department (R&HD) and the Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd, the contractor of the project realised that a mysterious deviation had taken place to save an illegally extended part of a local school.

According to sources more irregularities were reported in the project involving land acquisition. Local people alleged that there are instances when huge compensation was paid for land acquisition but the land was never incorporated within the project.

"We locals know everyone here who received compensation for land acquired by the Deputy Commissioner's office in 2005 but in one particular case we know for sure that the land owner received the hefty compensation but never gave away the land for the bridge," said a long time resident of Basila pointing out the plot in question is located near the culvert on the Basila road.

With the deviation unearthed, the bridge officials asked the government to

start procedures to acquire more lands on the Basila side. In February the officials requested the central land allocation committee under the Ministry of Land to expedite the procedure on the basis that many of its workers were sitting idle.

The director of the third Buriganga bridge project, Mahbubur Rahman said that his office duly demarcated the project area with concrete pillars following DC office's acquisition.

"We are not aware of any irregularity in land acquisition," he said. "The work on the bridge has not totally stopped, we are now working on the pillars situated in the river," he added.

To utter annoyance of the local people the Deputy Commissioner's office recently sent the land acquisition letters to several families in Basila. These families said that they had already given almost all their land for the bridge in 2005 and rebuilt on whatever they were left with. "We want a thorough enquiry into the matter, there is telltale corruption in the whole procedure," said a resident requesting not to be named.

"On the other side of the river in Basila, the bridge design was negotiated," local people alleged. They said that a private graveyard, outside land acquisition area, was incorporated in the project despite protests from the people. The project officials said that the graveyard area was incorporated in the project after the former Member of Parliament Amanullah Aman negotiated a verbal deal with the owners.

The TK 49 crore third Buriganga project is funded by the Kuweit Fund for Arab Economic Development and is scheduled to be completed in 2010. The Basila bridge would open new roads from the capital to connect vast areas in Keraniganj and also connect Savar and Mawa Roads.