NEW DELHI: With the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) kept in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called for the resumption of the Tulbul Navigation Project in north Kashmir to boost the region’s economy.
The project was halted in 1987 due to pressure from Pakistan, which cited various clauses of the IWT that restrict any storage along the Jhelum river, a part of the Indus basin.
Notably, Articles III and IV of the IWT grant India the rights to use the waters of the Indus river basin for non-consumptive purposes. The Tulbul Navigation Project, also known as the Wular Barrage Project, was initiated in the 1980s with the goal of ensuring year-round navigation that would connect three districts of Kashmir — Anantnag, Srinagar, and Baramulla — and generating electricity downstream, particularly during the winter months.
Abdullah has posted a 30-second video clip on social media platform X (formerly twitter) where it shows Wular lake and suspended civil work of the Tulbul Navigation Barrage.
“It (Tulbul project) was started in the early 1980s but had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the Indus Waters Treaty,” writes Abdullah.
“Now that the IWT has been ‘temporarily suspended’, I wonder if we will be able to resume the project. It will give us the advantage of allowing us to use the Jhelum for navigation. It will also improve the power generation of downstream power projects, especially in winter,” he adds.
The project intends to regulate water release from Wular Lake to a minimum depth (1.4 metre) in the Jhelum River during lean winter months. India has been consistently raising the completion of the navigation project with Pakistan in secretary-level composite dialogues and side talks at multilateral platforms.
The last time India spoke with Pakistan was in 2014. Then water resource minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told Parliament about ongoing discussion with Pakistan and refused to give time frame for resumption of the work.
According to Pakistan’s perception, the project structure constitutes barrage with a storage capacity of around 0.3 million acre feet (0.369 billion cubic metre) and that India is not permitted to construct any storage facility on the main stem of the river Jhelum. Indian side has pointed out that the structure is not a storage facility but a navigation facility as defined in the Indus Waters Treaty.
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