India pledges $4.5b for Bangladesh projects

-- $4.5b for top projects in Bangladesh

-- Modi assures of early solution on Teesta

-- 60MW electricity more

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-- 22 deals signed

India has declared to provide assistance of US$ 4.5 billion for implementation of top priority projects in Bangladesh.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement at a joint press conference with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina in New Delhi today.

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"The fruits of our cooperation must benefit our people, in this context I am happy to announce a new concessional line of credit of 4.5 billion dollars for the implementation of projects in priority sectors of Bangladesh," Modi said in his speech.

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More than eight billion dollars as resource allocation have been provided by India for Bangladesh over the past six years, the Indian PM added. 

Terming Teesta river important for Bangladesh-India relationship, Modi assured of an early breakthrough of the river's water sharing issue.

READ MORE: Modi assures of early Teesta solution

Mamata was present at the briefing and is expected to meet the two PMs and join a lunch being hosted by Modi for Hasina, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Click HERE to read press statement by Narendra Modi 

On reaching the Hyderabad House, the usual venue of all summit-level talks in the Indian capital, Hasina was welcomed by Modi and the two leaders waved to the media before the Indian PM escorted her to the lawn of the House for the one-to-meeting held shortly before the delegation-level talks between the two sides.

As they proceeded along the corridors of the House to the lawn, Hasina and Modi were seen engaged in conversations. Later, they were closeted for an exclusive meeting.

After the talks at two separate levels, the two leaders addressed the media after overseeing the inking of the agreements.

Hasina and Modi jointly flagged off via video conferencing passenger bus and rail services between Khulna and Kolkata and a container train service from Radhikapur in India and Parbatipur in Bangladesh for ferrying high speed diesel.

Later today, Hasina attended a "sommanona" function at the Sam Manekshaw Centre to honour the families of 1616 Indian soldiers who laid down their lives during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. Hasina had earlier honoured the civilians who contributed to the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country. 

The Bangladesh PM will visit Ajmer on Sunday where she will offer prayers at the holy shrine of sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti and will meet an Indian think-tank as well as the Indian business leaders on Monday before going back to Dhaka.

Please click here to find the list of Agreements/MoUs exchanged between India and Bangladesh.