Distorted old remarks of the commerce adviser circulate, claiming he called for demolishing the metro rail

A post has been circulating on social media, claiming that the commerce adviser to the interim government, Sheikh Bashir Uddin, stated that unnecessary mega infrastructure projects, such as the Metro Rail, should be demolished. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the Commerce Adviser did not make any such comment referring to the Metro Rail project.

On October 27, A Facebook page posted an image that read, “Unnecessary mega infrastructures like the Metro Rail should be demolished: Commerce Adviser.” The caption of the post stated, “Even rickshaw-making engineers like him are saying that it costs more than that in India and lacks quality! If your skill is limited to inventing rickshaws, how would you understand why the Metro Rail costs more in Bangladesh? Or that it requires regular maintenance? Rural boys of this country are making airplanes that fly in the sky, while you make rickshaws 🤷‍♂️ Reality!”

Several personal Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3, 4) and a page posted the same claim, stating that Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin made this remark. A YouTube video was also uploaded with the same claim.

Keyword searches using the name of the Adviser and related sources revealed a report by Somoy TV. The report was published on June 25, 2025, with the title: “Unnecessary mega infrastructures should be demolished: Commerce Adviser.” The report stated, “The Commerce Adviser said, ‘What will happen to those projects that are 70–80 percent completed? Completing them will also be costly. My personal opinion is that such infrastructures should be demolished. The reason is, these projects have no economic utility. So, demolishing them would set an example that we can take down unnecessary infrastructures. We still have to bear the liabilities.’”

He made this remark at a seminar titled “Conductive Automobile Policies for Green Growth & Competitive Economy” held on June 25 at the auditorium of Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) in Paltan, Dhaka. According to the report, the Adviser did not mention any specific project for demolition. At that time, several other reports (1, 2, 3, 4) were also published on his comments.

For further verification, Dismislab reviewed Somoy TV’s video report about the adviser’s remarks. The 2:02-minute video, published on June 25, 2025, shows between 43 seconds and 1 minute 56 seconds, the adviser said, “What will happen to projects that are 70–80 percent or 50 percent completed? Completing them will also cost a lot of money. My personal opinion is that such infrastructures should be demolished, spending a similar amount of money. There are two reasons for demolition. One is that these projects have no economic utility or rationale. The second is that by demolishing such projects, we can set an example that unnecessary infrastructures can be taken down. We still have to bear the liabilities because they are international obligations. But things that are not needed, those that were built unnecessarily. My personal opinion is that they should be demolished.”

The same remark by the adviser can also be heard in a video report published the same day by Desh TV.

In other words, the adviser’s comment about mega projects was about unnecessary and under-construction projects, and he did not remark on demolishing the Metro Rail. Therefore, his comments about mega projects are being misrepresented.

Notably, on October 26, a bearing pad from a Metro Rail pillar fell in the Farmgate area of the capital, killing a pedestrian. Around 12:30 p.m. that day, Abul Kalam Azad was walking along the footpath in Farmgate when a bearing pad from the top of pillar number 433, on the west side of the Metro Rail station, fell and struck his head. He died on the spot. Following the incident, Metro Rail operations were suspended from 12:30 p.m. At 3:00 p.m., services resumed between Uttara and Agargaon. Later, at 7:15 p.m., Metro Rail operations resumed from Motijheel to Shahbagh. 

Disclaimer: The original version of this fact-check report was published in Bengali on Dismislab’s Bengali website on October 28, 2025. The English translation was completed later; however, to maintain time accuracy and avoid any potential misinterpretation, the English version has been published with the original publication date.