India and Bangladesh today launched their crucial talks to hammer out an interim agreement on sharing of waters of Teesta river in dry season for the next 15 years.

India's Water Resources Secretary Dhruv Vijai Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Mohammad Wahiduzzaman met at the state guest house of Meghna this morning, a spokesman of the Indo-Bangal Joint River Commission said.

Officials said the two countries are expected to draft an interim agreement on water sharing in dry season in the Teesta for the next 15 years.

The two countries are understood to have decided to reach an interim agreement as protracted negotiations on the Teesta since 1952 eluded a solution. The two neighbours had only exchanged papers to resolve the issue in the past decades.

Bangladesh submitted a draft interim treaty at the minister-level talks of the JRC in New Delhi last year while officials said the Bangladeshi proposal suggested a good share of the water to be kept for the river itself and the rest to be divided into two shares through India's Gazoldoba -- the only release point of Teesta water to Bangladesh.

They said India earlier gave a 'statement of principles' for sharing Teesta wanting the lion share of the river waters while Dhaka proposed setting aside 20 per cent of the river's total natural flow for the stream itself and sharing the remaining 80 per cent equally.

The secretary-level meeting of the JRC is also likely to discuss a short-term treaty for sharing water of the Feni river, another border river in southeastern frontiers, while negotiations were underway at expert level on sharing of waters of six more rivers -- Monu, Khowai, Muhuri, Gomti, Dhorla and Dudhkumar.

Foreign Minster Dipu Moni had recently said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government attached highest priority towards concluding water sharing treaty of the Teesta. The water of Teesta is crucial for Bangladesh, especially in the leanest period from December to March.

Drastic fall in the water flow of Teesta during the lean season, especially in February and March, seriously hampers irrigation in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and India had inked a landmark treaty on sharing of the Ganges water during Hasina's previous 1996-201 tenure removing a major irk in bilateral ties.