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for the test-run of the feeder canal was announced on 18th April 1975 in the form
of a joint press release.
The Indian side pointed out that while discussions regarding allocation of fair weather flows
of the Ganga during lean months in terms of the Prime Ministers' declaration of May, 1974
are continuing, it is essential to run the feeder canal of the Farakka barrage during the current
lean-period. It is agreed that this operation may be carried out with varying discharges
in ten-day periods during the months April and May 1975, as shown below ensuring the
continuance of the remaining flows for Bangladesh.
Month
10-day period
Withdrawal
21
st
to 30
th
April, 1975
11,000 Cusecs
1
st
to 10
th
12
th
to 20
th
21
st
May, 1975
12,000 Cusecs
15,000 Cusecs
16,000 Cusecs
to 31
st
Joint teams consisting of experts of two governments shall observe, at the appropriate
places, in both the countries, the effects of the agreed withdrawals at Farakka, in Bangladesh
and on the Hooghly river for the benefit of Calcutta port. A joint team will also be sta-
tioned at Farakka to record the discharges into the feeder canal and the remaining flows for
Bangladesh. The teams will submit their reports to both the governments for consideration.
The full text of the Joint Press Release of 18th April, 1975 is given in
Appendix - A.
The accord of April 1975 was for test-running the canal by letting 16,000 cusecs
flow on its dry bed and slope to help it adjust to the regular designed discharge after-
ward. Any structure needs test-running with loads and stresses before the actual
design loads and stresses are applied. For an unlined canal of such a big cross-
section with carrying capacity of 40,000 cusecs and the bed-width of about 150 m,
making it the biggest unlined canal section of the world, a test-running with less dis-
charge and gradual increase was absolutely necessary. In the Farakka feeder canal,
the discharge was gradually increased from 16,000 cusecs to the designed discharge
of 40,000 cusecs in June 1975. The plea by Bangladesh that after May 1975, the
feeder canal should not carry any discharge until further accord was technically
unsound. A canal carrying some discharge cannot be dried up suddenly without
causing bank slips and maintenance problems. Also, the Joint Declaration of May,
1974 was for the season of minimum flow, which was over on 31
st
May. The canal
was to run during flood season which started from June.
The Farakka Barrage Project was commissioned on 21st May 1975 by Jagjivan
Ram, India's irrigation Minister in the presence of Siddartha Shankar Roy, Chief
Minister of West Bengal and B. M. Abbas, Adviser to the Bangladesh President
Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman.
Under the 1975 accord, the places and the type of observations, to be carried
out at different places at Farakka, in the river Hooghly in India and in the Ganga-
Padma in Bangladesh were decided on 24th and 25th April 1975 in Kolkata by
the representatives of the governments of India, Bangladesh, West Bengal and the
Calcutta Port Trust. Their observations related to the gauge, discharge, tide, track
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