Strategic shift: JK CM is looking for the Center for Tulbul Barrage and Chenab Lift Project; Indus Waters Treaty Suspension opens the window – Times of India

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah have urged the center to clean up two long-term water infrastructure projects in the Tulbul navigation administration in North Kashmir and a water-lift plan for Chenab River for Jammu-after the Deeping the 1960 Indus Treaty.The movement of the center came in the aftermath of the terror attack of April 22 Pahalgam, in which 26 people, mainly tourists, killed. As part of a broader retribution package, the government has placed the IWT in anticipation, so that India explores new water management projects on rivers that are otherwise reserved for Pakistan.India has the right to complete use of waters from the eastern river-sutlej, beas and ravi-this about 33 million ACRE-foot (MAF) (MAF), while Pakistan has rights to the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, who together wear 135 MAF annually.In an interview to PTI, Abdullah repeated his long -standing opposition against the IWT and called it “the most unfair document ever imposed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. As former Foreign Minister for External Affairs, he consistently argued that the Convention has acted the assets of the region to store water and mandatory that all power projects remain “of the river”.“We can’t suddenly build current projects and store water,” said Abdullah. “It will take time for the benefits of the Treaty of the Indus Waters to flow to us.”He said that the State is now focused on ‘medium-term projects that can start immediately’, starting with the revival of the navigation board of Tulbul-also known as the Wullar barrage-in sopore in North Kashmir. The proposed installation of drop gates on the barrage would control the water levels in the Jhelum river, both navigation and winter production at the electric hydroelectric stations such as lower Jhelum and Uri.“This project will not only facilitate navigation, but also enables us to generate more electricity in the winter,” said the main minister.Originally approved in 1986, the Tulbul project was stopped in 1987 after Pakistani objections. India brought into work after the URI attack of 2016, but the efforts to negotiate status failed when Pakistan refused to involve during five rounds of permanent Indus committee interviews between 2017 and 2022.India claims that the project complies with the IWT, because it does not store water for consumer use and is eligible if a non-consumptive regulating structure.The second proposal – the Chenab water supply schedule – sets up to tackle the increasing water stress in Jammu City. Abdullah said that the Chenab river, which runs near Akhnoor, could serve as a long-term source for Jammu’s drinking water.“This project could feed Jammu for the next two to three decades,” he said, adding that “we have already had the conversation” with the center and that a senior adviser from the Prime Minister had recently visited the trade union area to assess both the tulbul and Chenab proposals.The government of Jammu and Kashmir has also sought permission to involve international financing agencies for the Chenab project, which would levy water from the river and distribute it over the district to meet the growing demand.Jammu, the winter capital of the region, currently depends on the river Tawi – a tributary that eventually comes to the Chenab in Pakistan – because of his drinking water. Now that the capacity of the Tawi is inadequate, the administration sees the Chenab lift schedule as an essential alternative.