Gurdaspur dam work to resume after Centre brokers agreement between Punjab and J&K

“This is a very significant development for both the states and also for India’s strategic interests. The project will ensure better utilisation of India’s rights over the eastern rivers of the Indus basin,” a government official said.

The agreement comes a day after India agreed to resume talks with Pakistan on the Indus Water Treaty at the level of Indus Commissioners of the two countries. India said it would participate in the Indus Commissioner talks to be held in Lahore later this month.

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Following the terrorist attacks in Uri last year, India had decided to temporarily suspend this channel of engagement with Pakistan amidst calls to abrogate the Indus Water Treaty. At that time Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted that “blood and water” could not flow together.

The change in India’s position came about after a meeting of officials in the Ministry of External Affairs with visiting CEO of World Bank Kristalina Georgieva. World Bank, which brokered the Indus Water Treaty, is an acknowledged mediator on disputes related to the treaty.

After Uri, India had also decided to begin utilising all the waters that it was entitled to under the 1960 Treaty that governs the sharing of six rivers and their tributaries in the Indus basin between India and Pakistan. So far India has been under-utilising is share of waters.

Today’s agreement between Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir is a big step in that direction, the official said. The Shahpur Kandi project in Gurdaspur involves the construction of a 55.5 m high dam on Ravi river. It aims at providing irrigation facility to 5,000 hectares in Punjab and 32,173 hectares in Jammu and Kashmir, besides generating 206 MW of electricity.

Work on the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 2,285.81 crore at 2008 prices, had begun in 1999. It was later classified as a National Project by the central government. However, the project was stalled following objections raised by the J&K government on a number of issues, including power sharing, design and monitoring.

“Many of the disagreements have been resolved. But some issues are pending. The states have agreed to resolve these through the arbitration mechanism according to a 1979 agreement that exists between them. But the important thing is that the two sides have agreed not to stop the progress of work on the project,” the official said.

The Water Resources Ministry has assured the J&K government that it will protect the interests of the state.

The Indus Commissioner level talks later this month will be the first interaction between the two sides after each country approached the World Bank last year seeking mechanisms to settle disputes over two ongoing projects in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan, in August, had sought the establishment of a Court of Arbitration under the provisions of the treaty while India approached the World Bank in October asking for appointment of a neutral expert to resolve the dispute.