Govt-funded healthcare centre operates from a rented building as its own hundred-crore property rots

For more than two decades, the Tongi Labour Welfare Centre stood as one of the few government institutions dedicated to the wellbeing of Bangladesh's industrial workforce. 

Built to provide healthcare, maternity services, family planning, skills training and social welfare support to workers in one of the country's busiest manufacturing hubs, it now sits largely abandoned.

The sprawling government complex, occupying nearly three bighas of land beside the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, has become a study in institutional neglect. Its buildings are crumbling, windows shattered, roofs leaking and rooms left locked for years. 

While public assets potentially worth hundreds of crores of taka continue to deteriorate, the millions of workers the centre was created to serve have been forced elsewhere for basic services.

Tongi, in Gazipur, is home to thousands of factories producing garments, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, plastics and other products. Every day, millions of workers pass through the industrial zone. 

Yet the government facility established more than four decades ago to support them no longer functions from its own premises.

Officials at the centre said the Ministry of Public Works declared the original building abandoned in 2002. Since then, the infrastructure has continued to deteriorate with little sign of meaningful restoration.

A visit to the site found peeling plaster, broken doors and shattered windowpanes across several buildings. Sections of the roofs appear structurally unsafe, while many rooms remain permanently locked. Water stains from years of leaks mark the ceilings and walls.

Outside, weeds and dense shrubs have overtaken much of the compound. Years without regular maintenance have accelerated the decay, leaving parts of the complex unsafe to enter.

Residents say the abandoned buildings take on a different character after dark.

"Only limited activities take place during the day," Shahab Uddin, who lives nearby, told Daily Waadaa. "After sunset, the entire area becomes almost deserted, and suspicious people begin entering the abandoned buildings."

Locals allege that parts of the complex have long been used for drug consumption, gambling and other criminal activities, although authorities say they have not officially verified those claims.

"The drug users gather inside the buildings at night," said local shopkeeper Alal Uddin. "Because it sits beside the highway, muggers also use the place before and after committing robberies."

Operation from a rented property

The Labour Welfare Centre operates under the Department of Labour within the Ministry of Labour and Employment. It was established in 1981 to provide accessible healthcare and social protection to industrial workers and their families.

Its services include primary healthcare, maternal and child health care, family planning, iron supplementation, health awareness campaigns and training programmes. Officials also visit factories to provide instruction on workplace safety, occupational health, maternity rights and workers' welfare.

The centre conducts between eight and ten training programmes annually. Officials say those activities fall well short of what the institution was designed to deliver because of chronic shortages of infrastructure, staffing and funding.

Its own buildings have become so dilapidated that the centre now operates from a rented facility on Olympia Road.

The institution currently employs 11 officials and staff, including Population and Family Welfare Officer Asma Akter and Senior Medical Officer Dr Ferdous Akter. Two of its 13 sanctioned positions have remained vacant for years.

Nazmul Haque, a garment worker, said the staffing level is inadequate for an industrial zone as large as Tongi.

"With so few people, it is impossible to expand services, introduce new programmes or strengthen field operations," he told Waadaa.

The investigation also found weak security across the sprawling compound. There are too few security personnel, and no modern CCTV surveillance system. The lack of protection has increased the risk of theft, vandalism and illegal occupation of government property.

Akhtar Hossain, another local resident, said unrestricted access to the site at night has become a growing concern.

"Different parts of the buildings continue to be damaged because they have remained unprotected for so long," he said.

Local land professionals and business owners estimate that the nearly three-bigha property, located on one of the country's busiest highways, could now be worth more than 300 crore taka, although no official valuation has been released.

Industrial entrepreneur Kamal Uddin said allowing such valuable public property to deteriorate inevitably raises questions about the government's management of state assets.

Renewed push from the government?

Dr Ferdous Akter, the centre's senior medical officer, declined to comment on the institution's condition, saying only that inquiries should be directed to higher authorities because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

Shah Abdul Tariq, senior joint secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Employment and additional director general of the Department of Labour, told Waadaa that the ministry is reviewing a project to renovate and redevelop the Tongi Labour Welfare Centre.

"After reviewing the technical and financial aspects, the necessary steps will be taken in accordance with government rules," he said.

Factory owner Abdus Sabur said the abandoned campus could instead house a modern workers' health complex, a digital healthcare unit, a skills development institute, a women's and children's health centre and a worker assistance centre.

Md Shahin, a labour leader in Tongi, told Waadaa that reviving the facility would protect public assets while directly benefiting the industrial workforce.

Experts say the first priority should be a comprehensive engineering assessment of the structures, followed by repairs to unsafe buildings, restoration of the boundary wall, installation of CCTV cameras, stronger security and plans to bring the unused facilities back into service.