Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave for India on January 10 to hold crucial talks with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on January 11 for updating the entire gamut of bilateral ties between the two next-door neighbors.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, announcing the of departure for the prime minister’s deferred tour of Delhi, told reporters on Thursday that details of the programmes were being worked out.

The upcoming Hasina-Manmohan formal talks are seen significant in redefining the Bangladesh-India bilateral relations in the changed political perspectives both in Dhaka and Delhi.

Several accords are likely to be signed during the visit to allow transportation of India’s Over Dimensional Consignments for installing a power plant in Tripura, strengthen Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute to remove hassle of certification of Bangladeshi export goods and facilitating Bangladesh-Nepal and Bangladesh-Bhutan transit through India.

As Bangladesh focuses on the sharing of Teesta River waters during the visit, the Water Resources Secretary-level talks will be held here on January 3 to do the spadework.

Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said, if possible, the minister-level JRC meeting would be arranged before the PM’s visit in a bid to reach an agreement on the sharing of the Teesta flows-one of a number of longstanding issues between the two countries, some dating back to the 1947 partition of the subcontinent at the end of the colonial British rule.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, who just returned from Mauritius, said apart from a few involved in criminal activities, all the Bangladeshi male and female workers would continue with their jobs mainly in apparel sector of the island-state. There are 12,000 workers, including 6,000 female, now employed in Mauritius.

Earlier, the Mauritian government had decided to deport 6,000 male workers for breaking laws of the land by some of the males. At the recently held CHOGM in Port of Spain, the Mauritian Prime Minister had assured PM Hasina of reconsidering their decision.

During Dipu Moni’s urgent diplomatic mission, the authorities of Mauritius conveyed their decision of not deporting the 6,000 workers.

A MoU was signed during her visit with an understanding that from now on, Bangladeshi workers would be sent to Mauritius through discussions between the two governments to avoid forgery with passports and other deceptions by dishonest recruiting agents.

In reply to a question, the foreign minister said Bangladesh’s honorary consul has been removed following several complaints and a new one would be appointed soon.