Will Tulbul navigation project be taken up at Agra?

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JULY 13. The Tulbul navigation project, on the Jhelum below Wular lake in Jammu and Kashmir, is one of the eight issues in the composite dialogue list, but it is not certain if it will be taken up in the summit between Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee and Gen. Pervez Musharraf at Agra.

If settled, the project has great potential for increasing commerce and trade. The incidental benefits would include firming up of power generation projects not only in India but also in Pakistan. Within India, the Centre has to contend with objections from the State Government, which bemoans that by regulating the flow of water, India was giving away its share to Pakistan.

If the project is not discussed at Agra, then chances are that the Secretary-level Working Group would be invigorated to further the discussions.

India's project to construct a gated structure and a navigation lock on the river to regulate the storage available in the Wular lake for augmenting the drafts in the Jhelum during the lean months between November to February was suspended in October 1987. Pakistan had held that construction of a barrage on the Jhelum was against the spirit of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. When the Commissioners of the two countries could not reach an agreement, India took up the matter with Pakistan in 1987 for a bilateral settlement and as a pre-condition, the project was suspended; it has remained so till date.

The estimated cost of the scheme in 1984 was Rs. 29.78 crore, and about 30 per cent works were completed by October 1987. The expenditure incurred till March 2001 was Rs. 36 crore. According to highly-placed sources in the Ministry of Water Resources, the project cost is likely to escalate to Rs. 116 crore at present costs.

So far eight rounds of Secretary-level talks have been held, the last on August 8, 1992. During the 6th round in March 1989, Pakistan presented a draft agreement. India sent a counter- draft in July, which was discussed during the 7th round held in Islamabad in October 1991. Thereafter, India's draft was more or less agreed to and the Pakistan side said it would be placed before its Cabinet for approval. This draft agreement was approved but did not reach India for the final signing.

In January 1994, in a non-paper exchanged between India and Pakistan, the latter said that all technical and legal issues were not resolved during the previous round, and opened the issue all over again.

In November 1998, the project was again discussed between the Indian Secretary of Water Resources and the Pakistani Secretary of Water and Power.

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