- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, June 14, 2022 : An official delegation of India and Bangladesh on Tuesday visited a new location for finalizing construction of an intake well to utilize Feni river water for various drinking water and irrigation projects. Speaking with Northeast Today on Tuesday afternoon, District Magistrate (DM) of South Tripura district Saju Waheed A said “A joint technical committee of India and Bangladesh visited the new location for construction of an intake well along the Feni river. The delegation of both the countries finalized the location. The design for the intake well was handed over to Bangladesh officials for approval and once it’s done, the construction work of the intake well will begin.”
“On Bangladesh side, the officials raised the concerns of the pending river bank protection work, which will be allowed to start after getting approval from the Tripura government and BSF, Tripura Frontier. It was a fruitful meeting between two countries and hoped that the long pending issue will get resolved as soon as possible,” he added.
From Bangladesh part, a 12-member delegation including Chief Engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Chittagong Md. Ramzan Ali Pramanik while from the Indian side, DM of South Tripura district Saju Waheed A welcomed the Bangladesh delegation in Tripura on Tuesday morning. The DM was accompanied by SDM of Sabroom sub-division Debdas Debbarma and officials of various departments of Tripura government including Irrigation and Water Resources departments.
Earlier on February 18, the same delegation of India and Bangladesh inspected the drinking water and irrigation projects along the Feni River. The joint delegation of India and Bangladesh visited the proposed site of the intake well, to be constructed by India to draw 1.62 cusecs of water from the Feni River at the Indo-Bangladesh international border. The engineering aspects of the projects were discussed between the representatives of the two countries. Earlier, DM also informed that collecting water from the Feni river at Sabroom 22 pumps shall be used for irrigation and pumps with problems shall be solved while the construction work of the water treatment plant at Anand Para in Sabroom would be resumed.
During this meeting and inspection, Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and Border Security Force (BSF) were present with the officials of both sides.