Days before talks with Pak, India steps up efforts to tap waters of Indus basin

[lcafanboy]

Days before talks with Pak, India steps up efforts to tap waters of Indus basin

Indus basin: Punjab and J&K to resume work on Shahpur Kandi dam project

HIGHLIGHTS

• Punjab and J&K signed pact to resume works on Shahpur Kandi Dam project.
• The dam will help India utilise its share of waters under Indus Water Treaty.
• India, Pakistan will hold meet on Indus Water Treaty in Lahore this month.

NEW DELHI: Days before its annual Indus Water Commission meeting with Pakistan in Lahore, India has stepped up its efforts of building adequate infrastructure to utilise its legitimate share of waters on eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) of the Indus system. Two of its states - Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab - on Friday reached an agreement to resume works on ambitious Shahpur Kandi Dam project.

The 55.5-metre high Shahpur Kandidam, located in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, will help in providing irrigation facility to 5000 hectares of land in Punjab and 32173 hectares in J&K, besides generation of 206 MW power.
The construction of Shahpur Kandi project was taken up in May 1999 but later halted in 2014 due to dispute between Punjab and J&K.

The move to resume work will give a boost to the country's strategy to utilise its entire share of waters under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

Though India had decided not to engage with Pakistan through the Indus Water Commission after the Uri terror attack last year, it has recently decided to resume the dialogue through the Commission whose next meeting will be held in Lahore later this month. The Commission is a mechanism to resolve any dispute between the two countries over sharing of waters of the Indus river system under the IWT.

Under the IWT, signed between the two countries in 1960, the waters of eastern rivers are allocated to India. Though India is under obligation to let the waters of the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab)
flow, it is permitted to construct storage of water on western rivers up to 3.6 million acre feet (MAF) for various purposes, including domestic use. India has, however, not developed any storage facility so far. India has also not tapped its full quota of water for irrigation under the Treaty.

Looking at full exploitation of its rights under the IWT with Pakistan, a high-level inter-ministerial task force had in December last year decided to bring Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on board for speeding up work on the ground through better co-ordination.

Accordingly, both the states agreed to resume works on Shahpur Kandi Dam project. The agreement to this effect was signed by KS Pannu, irrigation secretary of Punjab and his J&K counterpart Saurabh Bhagat in the presence of Union water resources secretary Amarjit singh here on Friday.

The project will be built with an estimated cost of Rs 2285.81 crore (April, 2008 price level). Though it would be constructed as per agreed design, a model study will concurrently be done to ensure that the mandated share of 1150 cusecs of water is available to J&K, which will be binding on both the States.

"The project will continue to be implemented by the government of Punjab. However, there will be a tripartite team headed by member, CWC and consisting of chief engineers of two states to monitor the project as and when required or atleast once in three months to ensure that the construction is completed as per the agreement", said an official.

Besides the Shahpur Kandi dam project, the task force had in December, 2016 also underlined the government's priority to speed up works on the proposed hydro-power projects on Chenab and its tributary - Sawalkot (1856 MW), Pakal Dul (1000 MW) and Bursar (800 MW) - for execution in a time-bound manner.
http://m.timesofindia.com/india/ind...ur-kandi-dam-project/articleshow/57462817.cms

 

[lcafanboy]

GOI is walking the talk on Indus Water Treaty. As discussed earlier govt is fast tracking all the dams so as to utilize as much water India needs and only giving surplus to Pakistan, So if there is no surplus there will be no water for Pakistan. This will cripple Pakistan Punjab's Agro economy to a great extent and will improve India's Agro economy in Punjab and J&K. Their loss will be our gain.:biggrin2::biggrin2:

 

[Mikesingh]

The Pakistani media and those involved in negotiations have created the false impression that India has no right over the waters of the three western rivers – Chenab, Jhelum, and Indus – and their tributaries.

Such assertion is false.

The treaty explicitly made provisions for India to use these water under specific restrictions. The Pakistani media and experts will be well served to review the Treaty in detail, especially Annexure C, Annexure D, and Annexure E, which stipulate the provisions for India to use the waters from the three western rivers for agriculture use, generation of hydro-electric power, and storage.

And that's what we're going to do now. However, we must fast track these projects which are permissible under the IWT. If this creates a famine like situation in Pakistan, so be it. They had signed on the dotted line too. So why are they bellyaching now?