Siliguri, India (BBN)-Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh could be an opportunity for both nations to resolve many issues lying unsettled for long between the two neighbours. Bangladesh expects a favourable outcome on the Teesta water-sharing issue from bilateral dialogues. The Indian side is looking for opening of the Tetulia corridor and widening of ‘Chicken neck’ area in West Bengal, people familiar with the matter said, reports The Economic Times. Two important rivers- Teesta and Mahananda- with Bangladesh in downstream, flow through control barrage gates in Gajaldoba and Fulbari in West Bengal while feeding the Rs 2,988-crore Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project (TBP). “To keep TBP running, Indian authorities often block a lion’s share of the Teesta and Mahananda water flow, making Bangladesh dry. For this, Rangpur region alone has lost over 7,50,000 ha of farmland,” an environment activist said. Now Bangladesh wants India to release more water. “With this on one side of the discussion table, we expect India to take initiative to get two important issues cleared by Bangladesh,” said representatives of many trade commercial organizations. The first one among them is the Tetulia Corridor- a proposed 6-km strip of land that will connect Chopra and Mayanaguri on the Indian mainland through Bangladesh. This will shorten travel distance of 60km for all Northeast region-bound traffic. Though India has already allowed a similar Bangladesh-to-Bangladesh Tinbigha Corridor, Tetulia is still to get a nod from Dhaka. The next is a less than 40-km-wide Indian mainland known as ‘Chicken neck’ at north Dinajpore district in West Bengal with Nepal in northwest and Bangladesh to its southeast. The entire northeastern region of India and the Sino-Indian border, which deserve high-security arrangements, are connected to the remaining part of the country only through this corridor. “We hope Mr Modi will now initiate new persuasion with Bangladesh to spare certain areas for widening ‘Chicken Neck’,” said a person associated with a security agency. “Reasonable and logical resolution of these issues can strengthen Indo-Bangla friendship,” Rahul Sinha, BJP’s West Bengal state president, had said earlier.
