India will soon get going on plans to create nearly 12 giga watts (GW) of additional hydropower from new projects on the Indus rivers, for which feasibility studies have been ordered, two people aware of the matter said.
Ongoing projects on the river system will add about 2.5 GW, but construction of these hydropower plants has been hobbled by “constraints and unfavourable terms” of the now-paused Indus water treaty, an official said.
Authorities in the Jal Shakti ministry and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation are working to expedite all projects under construction, following a high-level meet chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah on April 25, the official added.
The country suspended the six-decade-old Indus water treaty with Pakistan, already strained by long-running disputes, a day after terrorists linked to the neighbouring country killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Pahalgam in south Kashmir on April 22.
Authorities are expected to move swiftly on completing all technical requirements for a proposed Sawalkot project — likely to be the largest project — on the river Chenab in Ramban and Udhampur districts in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The plans to create additional power generation include projects that will be commissioned at Sawalkot (1,856 MW), Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Ratle (850 MW) Bursar (800 MW), Kiru (624 MW), Kirthai 1 and 2 (1,320 MW) hydropower projects, which will be fully synchronisable with the national grid,” a second official said.
The pause in the Indus treaty was among a raft of measures announced by India to downgrade ties following the Pahalgam terror attack. These steps will be in force until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably abjures from supporting cross-border terrorism”, the Centre has said.
India has been calling for a re-negotiation of the water-sharing pact due to diminishing flow rates in rivers running through Kashmir, owing to natural changes in the basin itself over time. The Indus basin has been shrinking due to lower freshwater outflows, according to a recent report of the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Pakistan has objected to projects on the Indian side, especially the proposed Ratle project and Kishenganga dam (now operational), seeking international arbitration and alleging the latter violated the Indus pact, according to claims filed by the country in a court of arbitration. India has rejected these charges.
In 2017, India completed construction of the Kishanganga dam, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated in May 2018. However, it had to be stopped several times, including in 2011, as Pakistan moved for arbitration.
Jal Shakti minister CR Patil met home minister Shah for the second time in a week on April 30 to update the latter on the current status of dams and reservoirs on the Indian side of the Indus river system, including legal aspects related the decision to pause the water-sharing pact, a person familiar with the matter said.