Silchar, March 9: The Tipaimukh power project in Manipur has hit another hurdle, this time on the other side of the international border.

A group of Bangladeshis, headed by an non-governmental organisation called The National Forum to Stall the Invasion of Rivers by India, flagged off a car rally at a muktangan (open space) in Dhaka this morning to protest the construction of a dam on river Barak at Tipaimukh.

The project was cleared by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January after a long delay. The rally will terminate at Jakiganj, a subdivisional town in Bangladesh?s Sylhet district along the Indo-Bangla border, tomorrow afternoon.

According to intelligence reports, convener of the forum Moulana Mohiuddin Khan said the construction of the 162-feet-high dam on the Barak at Tipaimukh would have an adverse effect on the river system in Bangladesh.

The Barak, which bifurcates into the Surma and the Kushiara in Assam?s Karimganj district, flows into Bangladesh to merge with the Meghna there.

Addressing newspersons at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Monday, Khan voiced the people?s fear that the dam would reduce the flow of water into the Bangladesh rivers. As a result, a large tract of land in the country would dry up, he said.

Sources said the car rally would traverse through Kishoreganj, Bharanbariar, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Sylhet to reach Jakiganj.

Hydrologists in the Brahmaputra Board have pointed out that the dam will not reduce the flow of water to Bangladesh, but will prevent floods in the neighbouring country as well.