Bridge on Feni river of Tripura can transform Tripura- Bangladesh ties

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On 9th March 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate ‘Maitri Setu’ between India and Bangladesh.Along with it multiple infrastructure projects will also be inaugrated in Tripura.

About

• The bridge ‘Maitri Setu’ has been built over Feni river which flows between Indian boundary in Tripura State and Bangladesh.
• The river Feni, which forms part of the India-Bangladesh border, originates in the South Tripura district, passes through Sabroom town on the Indian side, and meets the Bay of Bengal after it flows into Bangladesh.
• The name ‘Maitri Setu’ symbolizes growing bilateral relations and friendly ties between India and Bangladesh. The construction was taken up by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd at a project cost of Rs. 133 Crores.
• The 1.9 Km long bridge joins Sabroom in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh. It is poised to herald a new chapter for trade and people to people movement between India and Bangladesh.
• With this inauguration, Tripura is set to become the ‘Gateway of North East’ with access to Chittagong Port of Bangladesh, which is just 80 Kms from Sabroom.
• It is noteworthy here that Bangladesh in 2019 agreed to let India withdraw 1.82 cusecs of water from Feni river for the residents of the border town. The negotiations, which were dragging on since the early 90s, finally came to fruition in 2019 as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India to allow the release of potable water.

The Dispute

Initially there was no water -sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh. The dispute had been long standing. The controversy was taken up between India and Pakistan (before the independence of Bangladesh) in 1958 during a Secretary-level meeting in New Delhi.

It was in August 2019 that India and Bangladesh organized a water secretary-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) in Dhaka, where it was accorded to collect data and prepare water-sharing agreements for seven rivers — Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, and Feni.

Approximately 7000 population of Sabroom district would be benifited from this project. Drinking water supply has high iron content and not fit for drinking. So this project would provide healthy drinking water.