Speedy clearance expected in Sawalkote hydro project

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The Union government is looking to give speedy clearance to a ₹22,700-crore hydropower project in Sawalkote on the Chenab so that work can commence by next year and the power ministry is on track to decide which agency should build it, two officials aware of the development said.
The Sawalkote project, among four proposed hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir, has been granted the status of a nationally important project and is expected to generate 1,856 megawatts (MW) of electricity, one of the officials said.
The four projects, which together can produce 3,119 MW of electricity, have been hobbled by long administrative delays as well as due to restrictions imposed by the Indus Waters Treaty, which India decided to put on hold a day after the deadly terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22 that claimed 26 lives.
Apart from power, the Sawalkote dam, a so-called run-of-the-river project, will also bring irrigation potential to large agricultural tracts, a second official said, adding it will come up in the Ramban, Batote, Mahore and Udhampur forest divisions abutting the Raman, Reasi and Udhampur districts of the Union territory.
The detailed project report or DPR for the dam has been prepared by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd, the country's largest state-backed hydropower firm. The government is examining which agency should be tasked with the project.
'The Jammu and Kashmir government has expressed a desire to be involved in the construction of the project and build it either through one of its own power companies or through a joint venture. A decision will be taken soon,' the first official said.
India has quickened processes to start work on proposed infrastructure on the Indus River system as well as speed up work on existing ones after pulling out of the 1960 water-sharing pact amid a freeze in ties following the Pahalgam terror attack.
In 2021, the forest department of Jammu and Kashmir had recommended environmental clearance along with 'justifications', which had formally rolled out the process of preliminary work for the Sawalkote project, including recommendation of the catchment area plan.
The Centre is likely to give a go-ahead soon for the stage I of the two-phased project after issues of picking the agency and reviewing Jammu and Kashmir's demand for a role through a joint venture are settled. The Union territory is keen on getting on board because the project will then create a revenue source for it, the second official said.
'Now that India has put the Indus treaty in abeyance, the country has no obligations under the treaty and it is free to create infrastructure in the Indus rivers on the Indian side,' said Shashi Shekhar, a former Union water resources secretary.
Shekhar, as the top water resources bureaucrat then, had recommended the Centre suspend the treaty in 2016, when terrorists had attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir's Uri, killing 18 soldiers.
Prior to keeping the water-sharing pact in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack, India had been pressing Pakistan to renegotiate the treaty, citing natural changes in the Indus river basin itself, which had diminished India's share amid a rising population. Under the treaty, the ratio of water shared by Pakistan and India stood at 80:20.
India had sought a revision in the terms of the treaty bilaterally. According to the Indian side, Pakistan ignored pleas for bilateral renegotiation, and instead moved the World Bank for appointing a neutral expert to address the issues.
India then accepted a neutral expert appointed by the World Bank, which had brokered the six-decade-old treaty by formulating its technical aspects, according to the Indian side.
However, Pakistan then moved for international arbitration, a step India considers was a serious escalation by Islamabad, without exhausting all available options, according to Indian officials.
Since India's decision to suspend the treaty, Pakistan has written four letters to Indian authorities, offering to discuss specific issues, HT had reported last week. India and Pakistan have fought four wars but the treaty had never been paused before.
In letters sent to India, Pakistani authorities are learnt to have said that India didn't have powers to unilaterally suspend the treaty and called for resumption of negotiations. In an international conference on glaciers in Dushanbe on May 30, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had raked up the treaty, accusing India of 'weaponising water'.