A significant coming together

India-Bangladesh relations find expression in several areas such as sharing inland waterways and power

- SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE

With more sectors added to the mix every year and deeper engagement in the ones established, Bangladesh-India relations have reached levels where they are significant force multipliers for each other. Straddling political hoop steps, India now supplies almost 2 Gw to Bangladesh, just less than 8 per cent of domestic power generation in the country. Sharing river waters, mostly of the Teesta, has not yet, however, been agreed upon.

Yet both countries have agreed that a technical team will soon visit Bangladesh to discuss conserving the waters and managing the river. It is a key step just short of an agreement to share the river, which flows from India to Bangladesh with 85 per cent of the catchment area in the former. For Bangladesh, this is a huge vote of confidence in its relations with India and follows a series of rapid confidence-building measures the two countries launched since last year to improve connectivity.

The two countries have agreed on allowing much larger use of their common waterways by all types of ships from both countries. There are 54 rivers flowing through the two countries. Using these rivers will be the basis of forming a Regional Waterways Grid. As a position paper issued by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways notes about the grid, it is expected to "enhance economic activity in the region by supporting crossborder trade, aid in trade facilitation, boost economic and transport corridors, and overall regional development". The grid connects not just these two countries but also Nepal, Bhutan, and, even further ahead, Myanmar. There is economic rationale since India is Bangladesh's second-largest trading partner (see table 2).