New Delhi/Patna, Jan. 21 -- Teams from India and Bangladesh are carrying out hydrological and technical assessments in each other's countries, beginning the spadework to renew a crucial water pact that could test bilateral relations amid strained ties following an uprising that toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The 30-year-old Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, signed in December 1996, that governed discharges by India, an upper riparian state, into Bangladesh is set to expire. A two-member engineering team made a preliminary visit to Bangladesh in the first week of January, while a four-member Bangladeshi delegation visited a point near Farakka barrage over Ganga in West Bengal, collecting hydrological data to determine water flows, an official of Jal Shakti ministry said. htc...