India's water resources secretary DV Singh led a six-member delegation talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Mohammad Wahiduzzaman to hammer out an interim agreement on it.
India and Bangladesh are set to ink an interim agreement on sharing of common river-waters during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit later this year, as the two neighbours today "removed differences" at a crucial talks in Dhaka.
India's water resources secretary DV Singh led a six-member delegation talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Mohammad Wahiduzzaman to hammer out an interim agreement on sharing of waters of Teesta and Feni rivers in dry season for the next 15 years.
"We expect an interim agreement on the sharing of the two common rivers to be signed during the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh" later this year, Wahiduzzaman said at a joint press briefing.
A joint statement issued after the first-day talks of the two-day meeting of the two neighbours gave positive signals on the agreement.
"The two sides removed differences and improved understanding towards framework of an agreement," the statement said.
The meeting discussed issues "pertaining to sharing arrangements of dry season water flows of the Teesta and Feni rivers" as mandated by the ministerial-level joint rivers commission in March last year and arrived at the understanding today.
Wahiduzzaman said no further meeting at the secretary-level would be required for more negotiation on the Teesta and Feni issues.
However, he said water resources ministers of the two countries at a Indo-Bangla joint river commission (JRC) meeting would need to endorse a draft ahead of signing of the proposed 15-year agreement during the next Dhaka-New Delhi summit in the Bangladeshi capital.
The two secretaries did not provide any further details on the talks.
The joint statement said the meeting discussed formulation of a work plan on water sharing in several other common rivers like Dharla, Dudhkumar, Manu, Khowai, Gumti and Muhuri.
The last secretary-level talks were held in Dhaka in March 2010 when both sides reached a consensus about dredging the Ichhamati river and protecting the banks of common rivers.
Deltaic Bangladesh is criss-crossed by 230 major rivers, 54 of them are common with India, including the Brahmaputra that flows from China.
Bangladesh and India had signed a landmark treaty on sharing of the Ganges water during Sheikh Hasina's previous 1996-2001 tenure, removing a major irritant in bilateral ties.
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