Bangladesh extends Teesta project for two years
The Teesta river management groundwork project has been extended for two more years amid a $1 billion loan assurance from China and India’s tentativeness to sign an agreement with Bangladesh on the sharing of water of the trans-boundary river.
Dhaka has extended the duration of the groundwork for the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project for two more years, said project director Aziz Muhammad Chowdhury on Sunday.
A feasibility study, the preparation of a development project proposal and negotiations for foreign loans are the components of the groundwork project being implemented by the Water Development Board under the water resources ministry.
The groundwork project was scheduled to be completed this month.
But the COVID-19 pandemic is delaying the finalisation of the $938.27 million credit from Beijing, forcing Dhaka to extend the deadline until 2022, added Aziz Muhammad.
WDB officials said that the physical work of the proposed project would start after securing foreign loan.
They said that the project feasibility study had been completed by the Power Construction Corporation of China, also known as Powerchina, in 2019.
The government, they said, has undertaken the project amid a precarious situation faced by millions of people in the country’s northern region that suffers flash floods in the monsoon and drought in the dry season due to the unilateral withdrawal of water from the Teesta by India.
Dhaka has been demanding a greater share of the Teesta flow to have higher levels of water in its portion of the river between December and May when the water level drastically falls creating difficulties for the farmers in the north.
A 50:50 water sharing formula was agreed between India and Bangladesh in 2011.
India has put on hold the talks on common-river-water sharing with Bangladesh and held back the signing of an agreement on the sharing of Teesta water.
The latest water resources minister-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission was held in New Delhi in March 2010.
In an online summit between Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on December 17, 2020, Dhaka and Delhi signed seven instruments but could not make any progress on resolving the protracted dispute over the Teesta water sharing issue.
Earlier, India sent its foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on a two-day unscheduled visit to Dhaka on August 18-19 when a hectic negotiation between Dhaka and Beijing on a possible loan deal for the Teesta project was highlighted in the media.
An Economic Relations Division official on Sunday said that official letters seeking interest in funding the project from different countries, including China, would be issued soon.
The government wants to implement the project with foreign credit at a low interest rate, he said.
The Teesta is the fourth longest trans-boundary river to enter Bangladesh from India.
Originating in Sikkim and entering Bangladesh through Lalmonirhat, the 315-kilometre-long river travels 153 kilometres through half a dozen other districts, including Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Kurigram, before merging with the Jamuna at Fulchhari.
The WDB officials said that a preliminary development project proposal had already been prepared on the basis of the feasibility study.
According to the preliminary DPP, the project is aimed at upgrading the socio-economic status of the Rangpur population by establishing new economic growth points along the banks of the river by preventing floods and removing silts from the river bed.
News Courtesy: https://www.newagebd.net/article/124822/bangladesh-extends-teesta-project-for-two-years
