Bangladesh is convening a high level tripartite meeting with India and Bhutan aimed at jointly utilising the water resources of the Brahmaputra river especially for power generation, Tariq A Karim, Bangladesh high commissioner to India, said on Saturday.
"Bangladesh is about to convene a meeting of Bhutan, India and Bangladesh on Brahmaputra basin management," Karim told reporters in Shillon, capital of north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya bordering Bangladesh.
"We are all bound together by the Brahmaputra. We were separated (politically) and we are thinking how we can cooperate in harnessing the power and force of the river," he added.
Describing the three countries as the 'children' of Brahmaputra, Karim said, "The river cannot be tamed in segments. It has to be done together, so Bangladesh and Bhutan has to participate with Meghalaya and Assam."
Once the three countries embark on the project, it would transform the whole region, he said.
He said Bangladesh was eyeing at developing a thermal power plant across the border using coal available in Meghalaya's southern slope bordering the country.
A conveyer belt would be used to transfer coal from Meghalaya, the high commissioner added.
Karim was accompanying Gowher Rizvi, international affairs adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, when the latter called on Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma at his office. Issues discussed at the meeting with Sangma included increasing the number of border haats, setting up cooperation between entrepreneurs of the two countries in food, fruit and spices processing.