The Railway Men’s Store Ltd, an organisation of Bangladesh Railway employees which has been running a restaurant at Dhaka Railway Station in the capital’s Kamalapur, has not paid the rent for the eatery for the last three years.

However, instead of taking any action against the defaulter, Bangladesh Railway has allowed it to continue business as the railway official who oversees the department responsible for collecting the rent is also the chairman of the Railway Men’s Store Ltd.

According to documents, Bangladesh Railway leased out 1,844.18 square feet of space on the first floor of the station building to the Railway Men’s Store Ltd for 2013-2015 for Tk771,869.5, including vending fees, per year.

The agreement was renewed for one year in 2015 fixing Tk8,88,341 in rent and vending fees per year.

Railway Men’s Store Ltd continues running the restaurant after paying the same amount since then without the renewal of the agreement. The Railway Traffic Commercial Department could not show any document that allows the company to run the business to date.

However, the Railway Men’s Store Ltd stopped paying the rent from 2021-2022 with the accumulating dues reaching Tk20,66,953 to date. It had arrears of Tk2,90,271 in 2021-22, Tk8,88,341 in 2022-2023, and Tk8,88,341 in 2023-2024.

However, no action was taken against the lessee as per the agreement, which stipulates that the deal will be cancelled for failure to pay the rent for one year. Instead, it has been allowed to continue running the restaurant business.

Sources said the BR Traffic Commercial Department under Additional Director General (Operations) is responsible for taking action against the organisation for not paying the rent. However, the present ADG himself is the chairman of the Railway Men’s Store Ltd.

Asked about the failure in his dual role, ADG AM Salah Uddin said, “As far as I remember, we have no dues for Biroti Restaurant. There may be some dues that accumulated during the COVID-19 period.”

When he was reminded that the dues were not from that period, he said he will look into the matter.

Talking to the Daily Sun, BR Director General Sardar Shahadat Ali, who is also a shareholder of the company, said they issued notices to the company many times to pay the dues but to no avail. “We won’t spare the company if it doesn’t pay the dues. We’ll definitely take action against it.”