China is ready but I want India to do it: Bangladesh PM Hasina on $1 billion Teesta project

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appears to be making all possible efforts on reducing her country’s dependency on China. Hours after cutting short her Beijing trip and returning to Dhaka, she expressed that she would prefer India over China in executing a $1 billion Teesta River development project on the Bangladeshi side.

“China is ready but I want India to do the project,” Hasina told reporters while responding to a question on whether she would go with India or China for the Teesta project.

‘Give greater priority to India’

The Bangladesh Prime Minister went on to say that China has made an offer and has done a feasibility study. “India has also made an offer, and will do a feasibility study,” she said.  

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“After this is done, we will take what is appropriate for us. But I would give greater priority to this being done by India because India has held up the Teesta’s waters,” Hasina said.  

‘India will give what we need’

“If they have to give us the water, they should implement the project. If they do the project, they will give us what we need,” she further said.

Hasina said that the project, to develop the river basin of 414 km long Teesta river that flows from India into Bangladesh, has been long-standing and has also featured several times in the manifesto of the ruling Awami League party.  

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The Teesta project also figured prominently in Hasina’s discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when she visited New Delhi in June this year.

PM Modi had said that an Indian technical team would soon visit Dhaka for talks on the conservation and management of the Teesta.  

India and Bangladesh share around 54 rivers and Teesta is one of them.  

However, Teesta is the only cross-border river on which India and Bangladesh have been unable to conclude a water-sharing agreement due to objections from the West Bengal government.  

It is worth mentioning here that under the Constitution of India, the concurrence of state governments is mandatory for such water-sharing agreements.

In 2011, a draft agreement on sharing Teesta waters was finalised, but it couldn’t be signed because of opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who claimed that the treaty would leave parts of the state dry.

As India has dithered over resolving the issue, China jumped in with its proposal.  

Earlier this year, India expressed security concerns about Chinese engineers working close to its border if China was awarded the project. New Delhi has also responded with its own offer for the Teesta project to Bangladesh.

With inputs from agencies.