Tulbul Navigation Project: As J&K CM confirms revival efforts, will work finally resume after four decades?

Origins of the project

Also known as the “Wular Barrage”, the TNP was first conceived in the 1980s, and work on the project began in 1984. However, it was halted after Pakistan’s objections and the eruption of militancy in J&K in 1989.

The project aimed to have a uniform flow of water in the Jhelum – one of three rivers in the Kashmir Valley that fall within the ambit of the now suspended IWT – throughout the year to ensure navigation in the water body.

The TNP envisaged a lock-and-control structure on the Jhelum at its confluence with the Wular lake in north Kashmir’s Sopore town. The lock-and-control barrage was planned to be 135 metres (m) long and around 12 m wide in the town’s Ningli neighbourhood. A lock-and-control barrage is a hydraulic structure combining a river control dam with a navigation lock, which would maintain upstream water levels while enabling vessels to pass between different water levels.

The project aimed to store 30,000 acre-feet of water in the lake during high-discharge periods and utilise it during low-discharge periods to ensure uniform water level in the river. But Pakistan objected citing the IWT, arguing that by controlling the Jhelum’s water flow, India could use it as a “weapon” to cause droughts or floods in Pakistan.

Although India resumed work in the late 1980s, the rise of militancy in the Valley saw the TNP become the first target of militants, apparently on Pakistan’s directions. While workers abandoned the project, a large quantity of iron and machinery dumped at the site was looted. For the next three decades, work on the TNP came to a total halt.

A conservation project gets derailed

In 2010, the J&K government initiated the centrally sponsored Rs 389-crore “Wular Conservation Project” in and around Sopore. Supervised by the state Irrigation and Flood Control Department, the project proposed erecting bunds around the lake and a sluice gate to increase its water holding capacity. Official documents showed that it was aimed at enhancing tourism, growing fodder for the animals, and increasing production of fish and water chestnuts in the lake.

However, in January 2012, a group of militants raided the huts of the workers and decamped with the documents and the maps related to the project. In August that year, militants again surfaced in the area and used the site’s earth excavators to damage the under-construction retention walls and sluice gate. They also damaged the workers’ huts and asked them to stop the work.

‘Dangerously provocative’: Mufti

On May 15 last year, the Centre suspended the IWT in the aftermath of the April 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam and the four-day conflict India fought with Pakistan under Operation Sindoor. A day later, CM Abdullah publicly questioned if the Centre would now start work on the TNP, and later spoke about it in the Assembly.

At that time, former CM and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti had termed Abdullah’s call to revive the project as “deeply unfortunate”.

“At a time when both countries have just stepped back from the brink of a full-fledged war – with Jammu and Kashmir bearing the brunt through the loss of innocent lives, widespread destruction, and immense suffering – such statements are not only irresponsible but also dangerously provocative,” Mufti said. “Weaponising something as essential and life-giving as water is not only inhumane but also risks internationalising what should remain a bilateral matter.”