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Indian cabinet okays Kishanganga project

* Indian home minister says power project strategically important, approved despite Pakistan’s objections

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The Indian cabinet on Friday approved the controversial 330-megawatt Kishanganga hydropower project on the Ganges River in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) in a bid to win rights over river water before Pakistan does.

Recently, Pakistan also awarded a $1.5 billion contract to a Chinese consortium to build a 960MW hydropower project on the Neelum River – which is the continuation of the Ganges into Pakistan. According to the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), whoever builds the project first will acquire the rights on river water.

“Now that Pakistan has begun work with the help of a Chinese firm, we have to put our project on a fast track,” said a senior official at the Union Ministry of Water Resources.

New Delhi and Islamabad have been locked in a dispute over the proposed Indian project for years. Pakistan believes the project will not only impact its Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project just across the Line of Control (LoC) but will also adversely affect 133,209 hectares of agricultural land in Neelum valley and Muzaffaraabd district. But India says that satellite pictures show Pakistan is exaggerating its agricultural usage.

Objections: Announcing the cabinet’s approval, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said the project was strategically important and had been approved despite Pakistan’s objections. The project would help India use its share of water under the IWT and would create irrigation potential in Baramulla district, he added.

India’s Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz said a team of India-Pakistan Indus Commission had verified the agricultural usage across the border in August 2008.

“We verified their agricultural usages. They had claimed that over 0.1 million hectares of land was in agricultural use but the team found just a fraction of maize-growing land there which will not be affected by the diversion of Neelum,” he said.

According to the Kishanganga project plan, the Neelum tributary - which joins the Jhelum River near Muzaffarabad - will now be diverted to rush into the main river at Wullar Lake near IHK’s Bandipora district. The diversion will raise the lake’s water level as well as add 52 cubic metres of water to the downstream 480MW Uri hydroelectric project in IHK.

Under a reconfigured blueprint, the project will now be a run-of-the-river project producing the same 330MW energy.

Earlier, the Indian cabinet also revised the project’s cost from Rs 22.39 billion to Rs 36.42 billion. Officials attributed the increase in cost to a heavy silt load and the higher risk associated with the project due to difficult geology and proximity with the LoC.

In a bid to reduce costs, the executing agency - National Hydro-Electric Corporation - had requested the state government to give up its claim over 12 percent of profits as royalties, which was not accepted. Consequently, an alternative design reducing the dam’s height from 73 to 37 metres was approved, which cut costs not only in construction but also in rehabilitating the displaced Dard Shina tribes inhabiting the land-locked valley.

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