GM Shamsur Rahman, superintending engineer of Sylhet Water Development Board (WDB) and a member of the commission, yesterday said the activities of the survey remained suspended due to the inaction of their Indian counterpart.

"But recently we received an official letter from the Indian authority for resuming the work," he said, adding, "We hope to invite the Indians to the next meeting likely to be held in Sylhet or at Zakiganj border."

The surveys will be conducted on a 6km area upstream Indian river Barak, a 10km area of common river Kushiyara, and a 5km area on the Surma in Bangladesh territory.

"We have sent a Tk 25 lakh proposal to the Ministry of Water Resources for meeting the relevant expenditure...We are trying to start the work as soon as possible," the WDB official said.

Besides the joint survey, Bangladesh and India at the 13th JRC meeting in 1999 for the first time agreed on dredging rivers in both the countries. The objective was to save Bangladesh land on the Kushiyara banks from severe erosion, increasing water flow in the Kushiyara and Surma, and maintain ecological balance in the vast areas of Barak valley.

The meeting also agreed to ensure an even flow of water in the Surma and Kushiyara.

But Bangladesh has already lost about 3,000 acres of land--while huge tracts of land have emerged on the Indian side--due to severe erosion along these two rivers only due to lack of initiatives to implement the survey and dredging programme.

Sources said the proceedings of the programme remained suspended as the Assam water resources authority failed to obtain necessary approval from their central authority. Officials from Assam recently informed their Bangladesh counterpart that they got the approval.

The JRC regional committee in its meeting at Silchar in the Indian state of Assam on December 20-21, 2005 decided to resume the joint survey of the bordering rivers Barak, Surma and Kushiyara. It had also decided to start the work in January 2006.

The then chief engineer of the WDB northeastern region (Sylhet-Comilla region) headed the 10-member Bangladesh team comprising officials from Bangladesh Rifles, WDB and River Research Institute. SR Swami, additional chief engineer of the Cachhar and Hills Water Resources Department of Assam, led the Indians.

The JRC had started another model study in 2003 but it stopped midway for unknown reasons. Hydrographic and topographic surveys on the rivers in both Indian and Bangladesh territories were done that year.

The Barak, headstream of the Surma and the Kushiyara, originates in the hills of Manipur state in India and flows in a meandering course. Entering Bangladesh, the river bifurcates into the Surma and the Kushiyara near the border at Amolshid.

In the surveys it was noted that the Kushiyara and the Surma share the total discharge of the Barak in proportion of about 80:20 during the monsoon causing serious erosion of all concave banks from Amolshid to Gazukata affecting both the countries.