Icchamati joint embankment on Indo-Bangla border

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) India and Bangladesh have decided to jointly construct an embankment along 21 Km of the Icchamati river to overcome problem of the river changing its course near Belonia town.

A decision to this effect was taken after the joint inspection of the three rivers, Icchamati, Muhuri and Feni by the Minister of Water Resources Prof Saifuddin Soz and his Bangladesh counterpart Hafizuddin Ahmad.

The Rs 25 crore project will be jointly designed and executed by both the countries. The tender for the work would be called soon and the next meeting of the Joint River Commission would decide on the sharing of costs, Prof Soz told reporters here today.

He said the visit of the two ministers in West Bengal and Tripura side of India and Chittagong of Bangladesh was very productive in terms of generating better appreciation and understanding of genuine needs of local people and developmental requirements of the region.

The field visits during September 13 to 21 were held in most cordial atmosphere guided by the spirit of friendship, trust and understanding, Prof Soz said.

He said, during the discussions, both sides realised that more technical details were required to reach a consensus and this will be decided in the next meeting of the JRC to be held at Delhi on mutual up agreed dates.

The joint inspection of the rivers was a result of the decision taken at the 36th meeting of the JRC at Dhaka in September 2005.

The two countries have signed the Ganga Water Treaty in 1996 on the principles of 'equality, fairness' and the experience of the two countries in the last decade have shown that it is a win-win situation for both sides.

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