Indus Water Treaty

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Peregrine
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Indus Water Treaty

Post by Peregrine »

Hydropower: Three-fourths work completed, says Sher Ali
ISLAMABAD: About 76% work at the Neelum-Jhelum power plant has been completed and its first unit would start supplying 242 megawatt (MW) electricity to the national grid by July 2017, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said during a visit to the power plant on Thursday.

“By the end of December 2017, the remaining three units, each having the capacity to generate 242 MW, would start supplying electricity to the national grid.”

The Minister said that the project was delayed due to flawed planning of the previous governments. Completion of the project would help overcome power shortage in the country, he added.

Ali said that as per the promise made by PML-N during its election campaign, the power shortage would end by March 2018. He said that despite financial constraints, the present government continued to work on the Neelum-Jhelum project and has arranged finances for hastening completion.

Lt General (R) Muhammad Zubair, Chief Executive Officer of the project, said in a briefing that over Rs189 billion had been spent on the project to date.

“The project would be completed within the given time period,” he assured, adding that speedy work is in progress for laying transmission lines. “50% of the work to upgrade transmission lines had been completed across the country while work on the remaining transmission lines is in progress.”

He regretted that all the previous governments had not initiated work to upgrade transmission lines.

SSridhar Ji : Any idea-news about the KHEP Project going on stream? -TIA

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SSridhar
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Peregrine wrote: SSridhar Ji : Any idea-news about the KHEP Project going on stream? -TIA
Was supposed to complete by November 2016. Now expected by 1st Half 2017.
Project's Major components:
  • Dam - 37 m high Concrete Face Rock fill Dam (CFRD)
  • Diversion Tunnel - 9.5m diameter, 560 m long Diversion tunnel
  • Head Race Tunnel - 23.65 km long Head Race Tunnel to carry the water from dam to the powerhouse - one of the Longest HRT in India with overburden (height of mountain above tunnel) of 1470 m.
  • The construction of Head Race Tunnel is carried out using two methodologies. The 8.9 km tunnel of 6 m diameter from the dam side is constructed using the conventional Drill and Blast Method while the balance 14.75 km with a finished diameter of 5.2 m from the powerhouse side is constructed using Tunnel Boring Machine {Completed}
  • Tail Race Tunnel- Tail Race system discharges water back into the stream after power generation and comprises of 862 m long and 5 m diameter D-shaped tunnel and a 44 m long open channel.
  • Surge Shaft - It is a part of the water conductor system to power house located at the end of the Head Race Tunnel which acts as a balancer to absorb the effect of water hammer when the water in motion is forced to stop. The Surge Shaft at Kishanganga is a vertical shaft of 18.75 m diameters and 100.7 m deep.
  • Pressure Shaft - One steel lined pressure shaft 4.0 m diameter trifurcating at the bottom into three penstocks 2.1 m diameter each to create pressure in turbines for power generation.
  • Power House - The underground Power Station consisting of two parallel caverns, one for the three generating units and the other for transformer.
  • Switchyard - A surface Switchyard
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Kashi »

SSridhar wrote:Was supposed to complete by November 2016. Now expected by 1st Half 2017.
That's when the Paki project is expected to be completed as well isn't it? It'll be closely run thing. Of course it's entirely possible that the Pakis are bluffing.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Peregrine »

SSridhar wrote:Was supposed to complete by November 2016. Now expected by 1st Half 2017.
Kashi wrote:That's when the Paki project is expected to be completed as well isn't it? It'll be closely run thing. Of course it's entirely possible that the Pakis are bluffing.
Kashi Ji :

I don't think the Cwapistanis are bluffing. That must be the date given by the Chinese to the Cwapistanis.

Added later : Off Topic but pertinent :

Envoy: Iran calls for prompt decision of India for investment in Chabahar : 21- 01 - 2016

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Last edited by Peregrine on 30 Jan 2016 19:02, edited 3 times in total.
Kashi
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Kashi »

Peregrine wrote:I don't think the Cwapistanis are bluffing. That must be the date given to the Chinese to the Cwapistanis.
Then we must hurry up.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by SSridhar »

Kashi, why should we hurry up?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Kashi »

SSridhar wrote:Kashi, why should we hurry up?
I was under the impression that whichever country completes the project first gets the rights over the Kishenganga waters.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Gyan »

Sridhar can you point us towards some relevant and current articles regarding the canals and irrigation networks being planned or built by us/India to atleast use the water allocated to us or divert it into other regions rather than letting it flow to Pakistan in lean or monsoon season.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Prem »

Kashi wrote:
SSridhar wrote:Kashi, why should we hurry up?
I was under the impression that whichever country completes the project first gets the rights over the Kishenganga waters.
I think it about whosoever plan and build the physical structure first have the priority rights. India have done both Before Bakistan.
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Indus Water Treaty

Post by Peregrine »

SSridhar wrote:Kashi, why should we hurry up?
Kashi wrote:I was under the impression that whichever country completes the project first gets the rights over the Kishenganga waters.
Kashi Ji :

I draw your attention to the following Article Posted on the Previous Page on 22 Jan 2016 @ 20:42:

Which hydroelectric project, 969-MW Neelum-Jhelum or 330-MW Kishenganga will determine priority rights?

It states : "According to interpretation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan, the country that completes its project first will have priority rights to the Neelum/Kishengana River's waters."

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Kashi
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Post by Kashi »

Peregrine wrote:It states : "According to interpretation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan, the country that completes its project first will have priority rights to the Neelum/Kishengana River's waters."
If this is indeed the case then it makes sense for us to finish before them no?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by manjgu »

i think priority rights are for the party which starts first !! ?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by SSridhar »

The priority rights are infructuous now after the verdict by the CoA.
According to the court, India demonstrated a high degree of certainty when it started work on the dam between 2004 and 2006; while Pakistan lagged behind in implementation and planning of the NJHEP. Consequently, the PCA found India had a priority over Pakistan on the use of Kishanganga/Neelum river for hydroelectric power. The PCA, however, decided that India was obligated to construct and operate the KHEP in a manner that maintains a minimum flow of water in the river (at a rate to be determined subsequently).

In its final award, the PCA unanimously decided on the question of minimum flow that was left unresolved by the partial award, a decision to be binding upon both countries and not open to appeal. The court decided that India shall release a minimum flow of 318 cusecs into the Kishanganga/Neelum river below the KHEP at all times.
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Indus Water Treaty

Post by Peregrine »

SSridhar wrote:The priority rights are infructuous now after the verdict by the CoA.
According to the court, India demonstrated a high degree of certainty when it started work on the dam between 2004 and 2006; while Pakistan lagged behind in implementation and planning of the NJHEP. Consequently, the PCA found India had a priority over Pakistan on the use of Kishanganga/Neelum river for hydroelectric power. The PCA, however, decided that India was obligated to construct and operate the KHEP in a manner that maintains a minimum flow of water in the river (at a rate to be determined subsequently).

In its final award, the PCA unanimously decided on the question of minimum flow that was left unresolved by the partial award, a decision to be binding upon both countries and not open to appeal. The court decided that India shall release a minimum flow of 318 cusecs into the Kishanganga/Neelum river below the KHEP at all times.
SSridhar Ji:

Dhanyavaad, Nandri & Thanks a Zillion.

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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by SSridhar »

Peregrine ji, your Tamil is improving.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Prem »

Poakurram Poak, Smart as Rock
The Indus Inland Waterways System – the next big thing for Asia?
Although proposals were put up for intercity linkage canals through the Indus, the British engineers saw more economic potential in building irrigation canals (a similar thing happened in the Ganges system).While development of railways took care of inland transportation needs, the rivers were diverted into irrigation canals to transform the river basin into what is now known as the largest contiguous irrigation system of the world – IBIS (Indus Basin Irrigation System).And it has sucked the rivers dry.On the one hand, except for the monsoon months, the Indus delta receives very little to no flow going into the sea, and on the other, ever increasing irrigation demands are calling for damming or diverting even the leftover waters from the environmentally degraded rivers.
It seems almost impossible that the irrigation sector will let go its waters for maritime transportation.

Even with the current irrigation technologies being used efficiency can double, and with new emerging irrigation technologies we may be able to produce the same agricultural output with only a fifth of water.The government of Punjab (GoP) has taken the initiative to test start a 200 kilometre commercial waterway in the Indus River between Attock and Daudkhel. Through a public private partnership, GoP has established the Inland Water Transport Development Company (IWTDC). The company’s mission is to ultimately connect Port Qasim with Nowshehra.The pilot project is obviously a step in the right direction but IWTDC’s current vision is limited to a small segment of a huge system. The vision does not integrate and synergise other sectors such as irrigation and the environment, and it completely ignores the potential of eastern tributaries of the Indus all the way into India, and of River Kabul all the way into Afghanistan. Perhaps GoP has not yet visualized irrigation efficiency as a key to unlock the full potential of the system.
Possibilities of a fully developed system are endless.A fully developed IIWS, connecting all the major cities of Pakistan with the cities of India and Afghanistan, would also serve the economic interest of Central Asia and western China.Other than the purely economic benefits, there are other positives. The lowered demand on water has the capacity to lower water-related tensions between Pakistan and India, as well as between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In both cases, the upper riparian states will reap benefits by releasing water in the rivers flowing through Pakistan into the Arabian Sea. :roll: The transportation sector would save on fuel and help reduce its carbon footprint. With more water in the rivers, the environment all the way to the Indus Delta would thrive, encouraging ecotourism.Riparian forests and wetlands would benefit from the water flow, and help sequester more carbon and greenhouse gases. All of these, in turn, would dovetail extremely well with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and will help the country achieve, or maybe exceed, its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.The development of inland waterways is the only economically viable way to bring the much needed water back into the rivers, and is therefore a win-win for both the economy and the environment.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by saip »

The porkis want to 'revisit' the IWT!

Indus Waters Treaty

Link
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by sanjaykumar »

India please take them up on it.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Vipul »

India should undo the damage of the congi act of allocating 80% of waters to Pakistan. Nowhere in the world is there a precedent of an upper riparian giving so much water to a lower riparian country when the needs of its own population is 6 times more. The legacy of Nehru living in a fools paradise continues to haunt us.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Deans »

I'm writing a paper, for a think tank (whose orientation is broadly the same as BRF !) on how India can achieve a `silent economic strangulation' of Pakistan. (e.g. by India subsidising export of cotton based products which account for 57% of all Pakistan's exports.
In this context, I want to touch upon the IWT.

Can anyone suggest, or post links to what India can do within the confines of the IWT to take far more advantage of its provisions than what we have so far done ? (Apart from maximising the hydro potential of the Western rivers, which would also make J&K self sufficient in power. What can we do for e.g. to maximise water use of the rivers we do have control over ?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Abhay_S »

^^^ you may have already read this but just in case.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... i#p1900656
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Deans »

Abhay, Thanks for the link, I did read it earlier and I was looking for a bit more detail. For e.g. what amount of water gets diverted to Rajasthan instead of flowing into Pakistan, what would be the time and cost (in MNEGRA man days) etc. Any reason why it may not have been considered earlier ?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Deans »

If the Sutlej Yamuna canal is completed, would it result in a loss of water to Pakistan ? The issue is currently being looked at in terms of Punjab vs. Haryana/Delhi and not weather it would result in a net increase in Sutlej water for India.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by manjgu »

Deans..i did read somehwere that some water goes to Pakistan from sutlej..if SYL was completed..sutlej would be bone dry when it reaches Pakistan even when there is more water in sutlej.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Canal charisma: Bumper crop in dry Jaisalmer - ToI
At a time when several parts of the country are facing drought, the dry and arid region of Jaisalmer has doubled its annual crop production.

Jaisalmer's crops this year are worth Rs 300 crore, up from Rs 150 crore last year, thanks to a continuous flow of water through the Indira Gandhi Canal, said agriculture officer Ranjeet Singh Sarva.


The canal is one of the largest starting from Punjab and terminating in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan. Areas that benefited the most include Mohangarh and Ramgarh, where damages due to extreme weather and hail storms were also minimum. The government will also get a revenue of Rs 2 crore in taxes. Chana's worth this year is Rs 150-200 crore.

Other crops include mustard, isabgol and jeera. Crops worth Rs 200 crore will be sold in mandis and the rest will go to markets.

Crops have started arriving in mandis and farmers are happy. Mohangarh mandi has the maximum buzz. Mandi secretary Rajnish Singh said the mandis will generate a record revenue this year.
From Wikipedia
The Indira Gandhi Canal is one of the largest canal projects in India. It starts from the Harike Barrage at Firozpur, a few kilometers below the confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers in the Indian state of Punjab and terminates in irrigation facilities in the Thar Desert in the north west of Rajasthan state. Previously known as the Rajasthan Canal, it was renamed the Indira Gandhi Canal in 1985 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The canal consists of the Rajasthan feeder canal with the first 167 kilometres (104 mi) in Punjab and Haryana state and a further 37 kilometres (23 mi) in Rajasthan followed by the 445 kilometres (277 mi) of the Rajasthan main canal, which is entirely within Rajasthan. The canal enters Haryana from Punjab near Lohgarh village then runs through the western part of the Sirsa district before entering Rajasthan near Kharakhera village in the Tibbi tehsil of the Hanumangarh district. The canal traverses seven districts of Rajasthan: Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Sriganganagar.
manjgu
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by manjgu »

was wondering what ever happened to river linking projects? in view of droughts in central india..shouldnt this be given thought and worked upon?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by SSridhar »

^ That is a different topic and there is a separate thread for that. Not here.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Prem »

Dam Dam Dam Kalandar, Pani Nahi Pakistan Ke Andaar!

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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by arun »

X Posted from the “Afghanistan News & Discussion - April 2016” thread.

Let the Islamic Republic of Pakistan fulminate. India must help Afghanistan squeeze every drop of water from rivers originating in Afghanistan that flow into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Afghanistan’s authorities with the help of Indian experts have completed the feasibilities and detailed engineering of 12 hydro-power projects with capacity to generate 1,177MW of electricity to be built on the river Kabul.

If the 12 projects get completed, they will store 4.7 million acre feet of water squeezing the flow in the river reaching Pakistan.

India, which also helped Afghanistan in repairing the Friendship Dam (Salma Dam) on the river Chishti-e-Sharif in Herat province, is already erecting the hydro-power projects on the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus with an objective to get the capacity to maneuver water flows destined to reach Pakistan and is now active to squeeze the water artery coming from Afghanistan.
India out to damage Pakistan’s water interests on Kabul river
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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The Amazing Indian Story Behind Herat’s Salma Dam - Devirupa Mitra, The Wire

A long write-up, but worth reading every sentence.
For over ten years, the construction of the Salma dam has stretched the capacity of Indian diplomacy, administration and engineering to its limits, as New Delhi kept track of competing warlords on one side to maintain security, and the finance ministry’s beancounters on Raisina Hill.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got to push a red button together with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, opening the sluice gates and powering the turbines which will irrigate over 80,000 hectares of land and provide electricity to thousands of homes in the western Afghan province of Herat.

“Salma dam was a project that nobody thought would be finished – nobody. Not the Afghans, the Russians, and certainly not us,” an Indian diplomat who had been closely involved in the project, candidly told The Wire.

For Heratis too, the completion of the dam, located in Chesti-e-Sharif district, had always seemed like an impossible dream. “There were feasibility reports made for a dam going back to 1957, so the concept of one day having their own electricity generated was always there in background,” he said.

Image
The Salma dam lit up at night.

Across every corner of Herat city, billboards of Afghan leaders – President Ghani, chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, the water and energy minister Ali Ahmad Osmani – compete to take credit for the dam, which observers term as the first concrete achievement of the National Unity Government. The majority of the hoardings include Indian flags and photographs of Modi, next to exhortations of gratitude towards India – a fitting end to one of New Delhi’s most difficult foreign aid projects.

When India took up the gauntlet of building Salma dam 14 years ago, it had looked like a challenging but not impossible undertaking. For India, one of the largest producers of hydro power, it had seemed like a simple undertaking – a 42-megawatt hydroelectric dam is small by Indian standards – with the remote location being the only challenge.

“Remember, the first WAPCOS delegation went in December 2002. Everything was peaceful at that time. The Taliban had been defeated a year back. There was no sign yet that they would try to stage a comeback,” said the Indian diplomat, explaining why India committed to the dam project.

It was not the first time that the work had commenced on the Salma dam project. In the late 1970s, an Afghan firm got the job and had appointed the same small Indian public sector firm, WAPCOS.

The project never really had much of a chance. The communist regime of Barak Karmal and Hafizullah Amin took over in 1978, and within a year, Herat city became the centre of Cold War politics. A young Afghan army captain led a rebellion against the communist administration, in which over a dozen Soviet advisors and their families were killed. Herat was ‘liberated’ for a short while, but it led to a violent reprisal which left over 20,000 dead in a week – and became one of the drivers of the 1979 Soviet invasion.

In the armoured convoy evacuating Soviet personnel from Herat at the time were two WAPCOS engineers also making their escape. In an unusual twist, one of them apparently returned 30 years later in an official delegation to inspect Salma dam, when he narrated his brush with the start of the anti-Soviet jihad to an Indian diplomat.

He was not the only Indian to have apparently found his way back to the Salma dam. The former chairman of the Central Water Commission, R.C. Jha, was an assistant director in an office in Delhi, when he drew the design of some components of the dam “about 35-37 years ago”.


In the second half of 2014, Jha went to Afghanistan for the first time, as an independent director at WAPCOS, for some technical consultation at the Salma dam. “I am so happy that the dam is finally completed. But, I was really delighted to visit the site. Not least, I found that the design for the hoisting gate for the diversion tunnel had largely adhered to my design. A small part of what I did decades ago was still relevant,” the retired central water engineering service officer told The Wire.

With WAPCOS’S knowledge of the project, it was not surprising that India picked up the Salma dam as part of a garland of large development projects in Afghanistan designed for high impact in the initial optimistic years of the Karzai administration – from the Pul-i-Khumri transmission line, the parliament building and the Zaranj-Delaram road.

Cabinet approval of the project came in November 2004 with Rs 351.87 crore sanctioned. The contracts were awarded in 2005, with WAPCOS appointed as project manager, while a specially constituted firm, Salma Dam Joint Ventures was the contractor.

By January 2006, Indian engineers and workers reached the site – a wind-blown mountainous stretch on the Hari Rud river, littered with the rusting remnants of equipment previous contractors left behind 25 years ago.

“When we went for first time, all we saw on the site was heavy equipment, trucks… all abandoned and unusable. The few buildings like a workshop were completely destroyed by rockets,” an Indian engineer, who has been working on Salma dam project for last 10 years, told The Wire.

The remoteness of the location is striking. A 160-kilometre dirt road connects the site to Herat city, but most Indian workers hardly travelled on it due to its notorious reputation as a security hazard. In 2009, a senior WAPCOS official had a close shave from a kidnapping attempt on this road. Instead, they usually flew in and out by helicopter, courtesy of the Afghan military, which provided the service once a month.

There was no human habitation as far as the human eye could see. The nearest villages, mud-brick encampments on the riverside, were around 50 kilometres away.

The Indian workers brought with them the equipment needed to kick-start the project – excavators, concrete pumps, drilling machines. Seven Volvo tippers were purchased from Dubai and brought to Afghanistan via Iran.

But, they did not ship only inanimate objects from India. “In the early years, we even got a barber, a part-time one,” said one of the project engineers. Importing Indian cooks was a “necessity”, but eventually local Afghans were trained and became skilful purveyors of even south Indian dishes. “I had some of the best Indian food in Afghanistan at the project site. It became rather popular with visitors,” reminisced a diplomat.

A doctor was, however, too difficult to procure – despite best efforts. “We put out advertisements asking for a medical doctor. We never got suitable candidates, because of the location. So if we had a problem, the first aid kit was the main hope. If it was for something a bit more serious like a fracture, we went to a local Afghan who was basically a quack, but was good at setting right a twisted bone”.

The living conditions were, however, the least of the problem. Within a few months of the commencement of construction, it became clear that WAPCOS’s feasibility report was out of date.

Sources said that the firm had estimated that 30 lakh cubic metre of River Bed Material could be extracted till 10 kilometres upstream and downstream from the site. “In the end, we could dig up only about 11 lakh cubic metres. Just about one-third,” he said. “So what was the alternative? The site itself is mountainous, so break down the mountains”.

According to senior Indian officials, it was at that stage that alarm bells should have rung that the estimated cost of the project would be woefully inadequate. “But nobody raised any concerns then,” he said.

While blowing up mountains for rock quarry was perhaps the only solution to find enough construction material, it left work paralysed for one and half years – as India struggled to find a way to transport explosive material into Afghanistan.

“Iran refused to allow dynamite to be transported through their territory and asking Pakistan was out of the question,” he said.

It was Ismail Khan, the veteran mujahideen leader and Herat’s most powerful warlord, who brought back life into the still-born project. “It was Ismail Khan who helped to get us the dynamite through a local company from a central Asian country,” said the senior Indian diplomat. {Ismail Khan is a legend}


Conveniently, Khan, who as a young Afghan army captain had led the Herat rebellion, was now ensconced as the minister of energy and water in the Karzai administration since 2005 and directly responsible for the Salma dam project.

His life story has mirrored his country’s destiny. From a soldier, Khan turned into a celebrated mujahideen, defended Herat against Taliban as its governor, spend three years in a Taliban jail, escaped and led the resistance alongside the Northern Alliance. Restored as governor, he later became a minister under Karzai. He was a vice presidential running mate for presidential candidate Abdul Sayyaf in 2014 and lost to Ashraf Ghani, with whom he has a testy relationship.

“Ismail Khan has been one of our strongest ally in completing the project. He is not typical mujhahideen, as he is a trained engineer, so he used to tell us that we haven’t posted enough men to finish all the work as scheduled. He told us that more than the electricity, it was the storage of water in the reservoir which was his dream,” said a senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official.

Khan’s remarks were a typical response in the province, a reflection of Herat’s complicated relationship with Iran, Indian diplomats learn quickly once they are posted at the consulate at Herat city. “It is the storage of water which is a matter of pride for Heratis. A way to show their sovereignty to Iran”.

Iran had been uneasy about the implications of the Salma dam project and the flow of water downstream, and even raised it as early as February 2005 with India.

“9. (C) Reflecting on the recent visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi, Singh stated that the Iranian Foreign Office and establishment are supportive of Karzai, but the “other lot,” meaning the mullahs, “was of two minds,” and supported his electoral opponents. Iran has also complained to the GOI about the Indian-sponsored Salma Dam in Afghanistan, fearing a reduction in water supplies downriver. In these cases, India told the Iranians to discuss their complaints with the Afghans, Singh stated.” [Wikileaks]

With India not wanting to get involved in the bilateral water dispute, Iran pushed Afghanistan to reach an understanding over riparian rights, but to no avail.

“During wide-ranging meetings in Iran April 10-12, Afghan Foreign Minister Spanta deflected Iranian pressure for an agreement on water rights surrounding the Harirud River and Salma Dam project, pressed Iran to stop supporting the National Front, and declined (again) an Iranian offer to conclude a security agreement. FM Spanta sought a delay in the forced return of one million refugees from Iran but received no commitments.…While Afghanistan welcomes Iran's technical and economic assistance, growing Iranian influence over Afghan MPs, government officials, and the media are of increasing concern.” [Wikileaks]

A senior Iranian diplomat told The Wire recently that issue of water rights over the river is still very much alive. “Our concerns about the river flow due to the Salma dam persist. We have been keeping a watch on the project and need to have a serious talk with the Afghan side,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iran is a ubiquitous presence in the Herat province, where it is the biggest investor in development projects – from roads to power supply. “But Iran is blamed for being behind all things there. If any Indian official ask Herat authorities who is behind any particular incidents, the finger is always pointed at across the border,” said an Indian diplomat.

At frequent intervals, Afghan and international media report accusations from Herat security officials and politicians that Iran is trying to “sabotage” the Salma dam project.

Indian diplomats, however, remain sceptical about such blame-game. “We have seen no signs of Iran being involved in sabotaging our work. Iran has that much influence in Herat, that if it really wanted to stop the project, we would not have been able to build a one-feet high wall”.

Meanwhile, with the security situation deteriorating over the years, project engineers and supervisers had to become adept in keeping track of the fluid loyalties of local warlords. “The upstream part of site, which has the dam reservoir is the area to two local strongmen, Mullah Mustafa and Haji Sayed Wali, who are sometimes friends with each other, sometimes not. They are basically anti-government forces. We don’t see them as part of the Taliban. It was in the downstream section, which has the road to Herat that is under Taliban elements and particularly dangerous,” explained a project official.

While ITBP personnel were posted to protect selective Indian assets in Afghanistan, they were not deployed at development projects sites, where they would have been too visible in a sensitive and volatile region.

Since Indian diplomats had to keep a safe distance from ‘anti-government’ rebels, it was left to the project managers, with the help of Afghan employees, to conduct outreach to the local commanders.

Even here, Indians found that their understanding of the ‘good guys’ was diametrically opposite to the Americans, who dropped in from time to time. A 2009 Wikileaks cable indicated that Mullah Mustafa was using the necessity of “peace” at the Salma dam as a bargaining chip to install his man as the district governor.

“…Governor Nuristani was critical of Afghan National Police (ANP) actions in response to these and other criminal activities and took credit for the recent release of individuals kidnapped in January, as well as the return of the body of an Indian citizen killed by Siyashwani’s supporters. The Governor also recounted efforts by strongman Mullah Mustafa from neighboring Ghor Province and others in the bordering Cheshte Sharif District of Herat Province to press him to replace the district governor in exchange for peace at the Salma dam site, a major Indian development project…” [Wikileaks]

The Americans had targeted Mullah Mustafa, bombed his location on multiple occasions, but he escaped every times. While Indian officials describe him as “powerful and ruthless”, he has been supportive to the project. “Once our driver got kidnapped on the Herat Chisti road by the Taliban. He got him released within two days”.

Mustafa is also close to Ismail Khan, who had once helped to get him out of American custody, said an official.

Interestingly, it was not Mustafa, but the dam’s first security commander against whom WAPCOS had complained back home. Syed Gulbuddin Khan or Gullu Khan kept an eye not just on the project, but was also heavily involved in a war of supremacy again Mullah Mustafa – which kept away lot of his guards and brought the intensity of fighting to the site.

A 2009 letter written by WAPCOS officials to the central government talked of living under “constant fear”, with the sound of gunshots being a constant soundtrack. The presidential election had thinned out the security detail for deployment elsewhere, which fueled further anxiety.

The stream of missives from project engineers to the MEA and water resources ministry complaining about the security has remained steady, with the panic button pressed as the fighting intensified in the periphery.

“Last year, we got emails at night from the site officials instructing us what to tell their families in case they don’t make it alive,” said a ministry official. The Taliban had attacked checkpoints near the WAPCOS staff colony, “but these attacks were meant to register their presence, never a real threat to our engineers or the project.”

Indian officials asserted that there was never a direct threat to the project over the last decade, but there had been many incidents in the vicinity. In September 2014, the security convoy for the transmission line project was attacked and 12 people were killed. Then, there was a green-on-green attack, when a Afghan policeman shot dead four colleagues. It is estimated that around 50 Afghan security personnel may have been killed while on duty around the project.

“For security, we had around 200 persons spread out over 10 kilometres. If the Taliban really wanted to attack, they could have,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mustafa and Gullu Khan kept on fighting with each other – a proxy for the rivalry of their mentors, Ismail Khan and his chief rival, Maulvi Khudaidad respectively.

Outreach to the nearby villages became an essential survival tool. “To survive in such place, we had to become a part of them by taking care of them. For the young, we helped in school, provided playgrounds, held football tournament, while for the adults, we repaired mosques and maidans for praying [sic],” said a project official. The annual inter-village football tournament was the first time that the youngsters were introduced to the game, but they soon became proficient and learned to follow international clubs.

Asked how they found time for the community outreach amidst their schedule, he pointed out, “We had only site work. Besides, there was no entertainment, no newspapers, no visits, no sightseeing. So, we did have a lot of time on hand for such work.”

Besides the dam, the Chist-i-Sharif had a more enduring link with India as the origin of the Chisti order of Sufism. The most famous Sufi saint in the subcontinent, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, whose shrine in Ajmer is visited by lakhs of devotes, was a follower of this order. His uncle, Khwaja Qutubddin Maudood Chisti has a beautiful blue-hued shrine, with two tall minarets.

“We repaired on the minarets as it was nearly run-down and could have fallen anyday,” said a project official. It was taken up a CSR initiative by the dam officials, as Indian government could not pay for a project which had religious connotations. “Actually, the Afghans pointed out this fine print in the guidelines for our small development projects, so we got the shrine repaired through another way,” said a senior MEA official.

As Indian workers coped with the security situation, they also had to deal with rising costs, coupled with uncertain money flow from India as MEA’s development aid budget was stretched thin as the finance ministry refused to increase allocation.

“There were instances of Afghans dousing themselves with kerosene and threatening to immolate themselves if money was not issued. They thought Indian government was sponsoring the project, so they assumed Indian consulate was the right location for a self-immolation,” said an Indian diplomat.


Official records recount how work came to a “complete standstill” in the last two months of 2013-14, with pending bills of Rs 77 crore. This was mainly because of the delay of three years in giving approval to the revised cost.

With the economy going through a downturn, austerity was the flavour, with North Block not listening to letters from MEA calling for increasing the budget for foreign projects committed at the “highest level”.

For Indian engineers, 2014 was the turning point when it seemed that the project will finally see the light of the day. The filling of the reservoir in August 2015 led to a change in nomenclature in the project to “Afghanistan-India friendship dam”. Street parties sprung up in Herat city, with Indian flags being decorated across billboards.

Even as expenditure increased exponentially, the deadlines continued to be pushed, ever further away. From December 2008, the second deadline was December 2010, followed by January 2015, July 2015 and finally, June 2016.

India’s final tally was Rs 1775.69 crore – an increase of over 400% from the original estimate.

With the project finally over, it is the right time for a detailed study of its difficult implementation. As India moves to enhance its development aid portfolio from Africa to the Pacific Islands, lessons must be learnt from the Salma Dam project to avoid huge cost overruns and inordinate delays – a necessary step to make its development diplomacy an effective instrument.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by Prem »

Kalabagh Dam: Facts about the Indus Water Treaty
http://nation.com.pk/columns/10-Jun-201 ... ter-treaty
Another fiction in regard to Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is that it was engineered by Punjab to deprive Sindh of its waters.While going through writings on Kalabagh Dam I was astonished to come across some articles in which the authors believe that Punjabis, living on the Eastern and Western divide, after partition started conspiring with each other to deprive Sindh of its share of water.
It is an allegation of shocking intensity.A student of history may find the accusation of an alliance between the archenemies living on both sides of Punjab against Sindhis a farfetched idea.
This narrative, because of its sheer audacity, may surprise the people living in Punjab but reveals the thinking of those who believe unflinchingly in the unjust and oppressive attitude of Punjab.But the effort to establish the existence of a secret plan in 1947-48 had some flaws.The storyline is totally oblivious of the timing of this unholy conspiracy.It was a painful and testing time for Punjab.
Cross border forced migration on the basis of religion across the newly carved boundaries of Punjab was a tragedy of monumental proportion.A million people of Punjab on both sides of the divide had lost their lives; and the blood spilled on the cross-border migration had not fully dried.How in this atmosphere, the two warring sides specially the Muslims on this side could get together with Hindus and Sikhs on the other side to engineer a conspiracy against their brothers in Sindh? This may baffle the mind of any neutral person.Whether the IWT, which was ultimately signed in 1960, was the result of a conspiracy, cannot be established.The fact is, that the need to cater for a legal arrangement for division of Indus Basin water ultimately led to Indus Water Treaty.In most of Pakistan, it is seen as an India Pakistan water dispute and that is what it was.Here it would be of interest to see the difference in interpretation about the responsibility for signing IWT.
In his book, “Friends not Masters”, he writes on page 109:
“But before I write of the negotiations with Eugene Black, I should like to describe the confrontation I had with our own technical experts and administrators.I sensed that they did not fully realize the gravity of the situation and were asking for the moon when we were in a position of weakness all along the line.They were also trying to dictate policy and were taking up extreme positions.Some thirty or forty of them were assembled in Government House, Lahore, where I addressed them.
I said:Gentlemen, this problem is of far-reaching consequences to us.Let me tell you that every factor is against Pakistan.I am not saying that we should surrender our rights but, at the same time, I will say this: that if we can get a solution which we can live with, we shall be very foolish not to accept it.Now when I say that, I am in fact saying it to myself because I shall have to take the responsibility for the solution.Ayub Khan was obviously showing a touch of realism because India in between 1947 and 1960 had either developed or was fast developing 16 major water use projects including Bakhra Dam and Nangal Dam.These projects were developed unilaterally by India on Sutlej, Ravi and Beas and Pakistan was just a silent spectator – the details about the Indian projects at that time are available on WAPDA website.In view of India’s unilateral action, Ayub Khan in the same meeting warned the water experts gathered in Governor House Lahore in the following words:
The responsibility does not lie on any of you, so let me tell you very plainly that the policy is going to be mine.I shall consult you whenever I am in doubt regarding technical details, but if anyone of you interferes with my policy, I shall deal with him myself.”This clear threat to the engineers and water experts mainly from Punjab by Ayub Khan came in the wake of his draconian action against the Civil Servants (most of them from all powerful ICS/CSP cadre) who were unceremoniously removed from service under Martial Law Regulations.
It was from the Army Chief who hailed from Hazara Division of the then NWFP.To a neutral observer, the indictment by some writers against Punjab seems the most unkindest cut of all; just as hurtful as the general belief in Punjab that those opposing Kalabagh Dam are on the pay roll of RAW.The trouble with most treaties which are negotiated to settle contentious issues is that hardliners on both sides are unhappy and consider it as a sell-out.The water experts from Punjab consider it harmful to Pakistan and Sindhi nationalists ardently believe that IWT served the interests of India and damaged the rights of Sindh.
They are mostly oblivious to the thinking of Indian public opinion.Not surprisingly hardliners in India are also un-happy.A former IAS Officer Mr.PR Chari sums up the situation in the following words, “However, the IWT has its critics in India who argue that India needlessly surrendered 80% of the Indus waters by agreeing to reserve the three western rivers for the exclusive use of Pakistan.
As the upper riparian state, India had a preemptive right to these waters.In consequence, the remaining 20 % of the Indus river waters has proven inadequate to meet the needs of the growing population in India that subsists on these waters.
After signing the IWT, Nehru faced a hostile reaction in Lok Sabha on November 30, 1960.mr.Arvind Lavakare, a senior writer on Indian issues, mentions in his article (Recalling the Indus Water Treaty or Nehru’s Sixth Blunder), “Members of Parliament belonging to the Congress, PSP and Jana Sangh pointed to the glaring mistakes committed in conclusion of this Treaty.” He further states that within Nehru’s own ruling party, “Congress MPs from Punjab and Rajasthan, Iqbal Singh and H.C.Mathur called the treaty disadvantageous to India stating that both their home states “had been badly let down”.He further mentions, “Ashok Mehta, leader of the PSP in the Lok Sabha described it as a “peculiar treaty under which Pakistan, already a surplus area, would be unable to make full use of her share of the Indus Water and would have to allow it to flow into the sea.
Gulhati who led the Indian delegation during the negotiations over Indus waters.Gulhati states: “When I called on the Prime Minister on 28th February 1961, my last day in office, in a sad tone he said, “Gulhati, I had hoped that this agreement would open the way to settlement on other problems, but we are where we were”.Arvind further comments, “Thus, while Nehru believed that the IWT was “a good thing for the country” it has actually become a blinder.” He finally concludes, “What he signed 55 years ago was a Treaty of a suicidal trap from which Indians are unable to escape.

The writer is Chairman LAFDA.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Jhujar wrote:Kalabagh Dam: Facts about the Indus Water Treaty
When I called on the Prime Minister on 28th February 1961, my last day in office, in a sad tone he said, “Gulhati, I had hoped that this agreement would open the way to settlement on other problems, but we are where we were”.
Apart from highlighting the mistake of Nehru, the fact is that we continue to hope to this day that somehow Pakistan will turn the corner after every generosity we show to it ! Who is more foolish, them or us?
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Indus Water Treaty

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Cross-border water dispute: Trust deficit, lack of coordination major impediments in Indo-Pak water cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Impediments hampering trans-boundary cooperation between Pakistan and India, for effective water governance, include a trust deficit and a lack of coordination, cooperation and integrated efforts among water-sector stakeholders. A policy brief, titled “Pak-India cooperation for harnessing benefits of trans-boundary water in the Indus basin”, published by LEAD Pakistan highlights the prospects of Pak-India cooperation to reap benefits of trans-boundary water in the Indus basin.

It suggests measures that can help avert water-related conflicts, and maximise benefits and efficiency, through trust-building, cooperation and adoption of a benefit-sharing approach. It also shares recommendations, such as the need to have self-governing, technically-strengthened, and well-resourced local and trans-boundary institutions for sustainable and integrated water governance.

It says that the absence of trans-boundary agreements on areas like environmental flows, groundwater, water quality, ambiguities on environmental flows, and emotive statements on water-related issues by leaders and spokespersons in the media, further dilute prospects of mutual collaboration.

The policy brief says that security concerns due to territorial disputes and a history of armed conflicts and fixed mindsets of contesting rights over historical flows are major barriers in trans-boundary cooperation. Lack of coordinated efforts between research organisations has resulted in insufficient research, documentation and data bias. Insufficient research funds and poor knowledge-management of the emerging issues, like climate change and the melting of glaciers, makes it a bigger challenge to collectively respond to these issues.

The study states that self-governing local and trans-boundary institutions are considered a prerequisite for sustainable and collective resource management. Effective implementation and reform of existing agreements and signing of new agreements on missing areas like groundwater can provide a legal basis to ongoing efforts for mutual cooperation.

Establishment of scientific information systems and joint metrological facilities for real-time monitoring of river dynamics, supported by a well-developed reporting mechanism are needed. The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) is responsible for the distribution of water among provinces. It also assists provinces in sharing water shortages in a given year according to the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991. There is a need is to strengthen IRSA to enable effective coordination and information sharing.

Integrated efforts are required, regarding the lining of canals, laser levelling of fields, water informatics and related water smart irrigation and agriculture technologies and practices. Promotion of water markets, incentives for water saving, regular monitoring of trans-boundary aquifers for quality and quantity, and imposing penalties for non-conformance can help in improving water efficiency. Involvement of a broad range of non-state actors and public and private sector organisations in water governance, skill development and capacity-building of water stakeholders can resolve technical issues and conflicts.

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Indus Water Treaty

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Three-year period: Allocations for water schemes cut by half
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has cut by half allocations for water projects during its three-year tenure, which appears to be hitting the agriculture sector hard as growth of this vital segment of economy has turned negative.
The government has focused more on road infrastructure and metro bus projects, but pushed water schemes among less priority areas.
For the conservation and augmentation of water resources, it earmarked Rs59 billion for different projects in the budget for 2013-14 – its first after coming to power in June 2013. Of that amount, only Rs35 billion could be utilised due to delay in release of funds.
In 2015-16, the allocation was slashed by around 50% to Rs30.12 billion. So far, only Rs23 billion has been released, but the government hopes it will be able to utilise Rs25 billion by the end of the year on June 30.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Neelum-Jhelum power project gets record Rs100bn financing
http://www.dawn.com/news/1266623/neelum ... -financing
KARACHI: A consortium of 16 banks has arranged Rs100 billion sukuk for the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in what is the country’s biggest ever funds mobilisation for a public sector entity.
The NJHPC, which is managing the 969-megawatt project located in Muzaffarabad (Azad Jammu and Kashmir), has assigned the NBP the role of ‘mandated lead arranger’ for the arrangement through issuance of rated, secured and privately placed sukuk to partially finance the construction.
Pakistan has struggled to attract foreign investment in the power sector, particularly for the hydroelectric projects which have vast scope for investment and profitability. However, the response was not positive except China which has agreed to invest in Pakistan’s power sector under long-term loans for power generation.The Neelum-Jhelum project envisages diverting Neelum River water through tunnels which falls into Jhelum River after producing power. On completion, the project will be capable of producing 5.15bn units of electricity each year. This mega hydropower project has been undertaken long after completion of Mangla and Tarbela dam projects.This ‘green energy’ project will fetch a total revenue of up to Rs50bn annually for Wapda as per existing tariff. The first turbine will start to operate by the end of June 2017.“The project envisages 90 per cent construction work under high mountainous overburden and only 10pc above the surface. He said the construction work on the project is progressing at a fast pace and overall progress of the project is around 82pc so far.”
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by saip »

NSG vs Revision of IWT (why should Pakistan get 80%). Any thoughts? How difficult is for India to walk out of IWT and renegotiate for more water share because of changed water needs?
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

Post by sanjaykumar »

Keep IWT for when India needs to get serious with Pakistan-that day will come.
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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SSridhar wrote:The Amazing Indian Story Behind Herat’s Salma Dam - Devirupa Mitra, The Wire
OT as it is not related to IWT...but still i yearn for the day when these "baboons" or the people who worked to make this dream a success are celebrated as heroes in the print and TV media and facilitated by the local authorities for the challenges they took and the service they did for the nation
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Indus Water Treaty

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Neelum-Jhelum power project gets record Rs100bn financing

KARACHI: A consortium of 16 banks has arranged Rs100 billion sukuk for the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in what is the country’s biggest ever funds mobilisation for a public sector entity.

The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), which leads the consortium, has the largest share (of around Rs35bn) in the funds being raised under Shariah-compliant tool.

Mufti Ahsan Waqar, chairman of NBP’s Shariah board, told Dawn that financial closure for the sukuk has been achieved and the bonds would be ready to trade on the stock market after completion of other formalities.

The fund is Pakistan’s biggest for a public sector entity

A signing ceremony for the financing agreement was attended by President and CEO of NBP Syed Iqbal Ashraf, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Zafar Mahmood, Wapda’s Member Finance Anwaarul Haq and Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Company (NJHPC) CEO Muhammad Zubair, among others.

The NJHPC, which is managing the 969-megawatt project located in Muzaffarabad (Azad Jammu and Kashmir), has assigned the NBP the role of ‘mandated lead arranger’ for the arrangement through issuance of rated, secured and privately placed sukuk to partially finance the construction.

Pakistan has struggled to attract foreign investment in the power sector, particularly for the hydroelectric projects which have vast scope for investment and profitability. However, the response was not positive except China which has agreed to invest in Pakistan’s power sector under long-term loans for power generation.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Mr Ashraf said the sukuk was structured with a tenor of 10 years and was backed by the sovereign guarantee by the Government of Pakistan (GoP).

He said the bonds issue has received a preliminary rating of ‘AAA’ from JCR-VIS and is expected to have a wider impact on the financial market of Pakistan, helping augment a funding format that has been predominantly constrained to smaller deals with shorter tenors.

This sukuk is also expected also provide avenues for Islamic banks and mutual funds to invest their liquid funds in a tradable GoP-guaranteed Islamic instrument.

Apart from the NBP, other banks in the consortium are HBL, Allied Bank, United Bank, Bank Alfalah, Meezan Bank, Faysal Bank, the Bank of Punjab, BankIslami Pakistan, Askari Bank, Bank Al Habib, the Bank of Khyber, Dubai Islamic Bank, Pak-Brunei Investment Company and Pak-China Investment Company.

The Neelum-Jhelum project envisages diverting Neelum River water through tunnels which falls into Jhelum River after producing power. On completion, the project will be capable of producing 5.15bn units of electricity each year. This mega hydropower project has been undertaken long after completion of Mangla and Tarbela dam projects.

This ‘green energy’ project will fetch a total revenue of up to Rs50bn annually for Wapda as per existing tariff. The first turbine will start to operate by the end of June 2017.

Addressing the ceremony, the Wapda chairman said this was the biggest ever funds mobilisation for a public sector entity in the history of Pakistan. “Achieving this milestone reflects not only investors’ confidence in the federal government and Wapda, but also indicates the potential of investment that hydropower sector offers,” he said.

“This issuance... will go a long way in arranging funds for other hydropower projects as well to be initiated in the near future,” he added.

“The project envisages 90 per cent construction work under high mountainous overburden and only 10pc above the surface. He said the construction work on the project is progressing at a fast pace and overall progress of the project is around 82pc so far.”
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Re: Indus Water Treaty

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Kiru hydel project in J&K gets Centre's green nod.

The environment and forests ministry has accorded environment clearance to the 624-MW Kiru hydroelectric project proposed to be constructed in Jammu & Kashmir by Chenab Valley Power Projects, a joint venture of state-run hydel utility NHPC.

The state government had given forest clearance to the project in May. Techno-economic appraisal has also been accorded by the Central Electricity Authority.

The project is estimated to cost Rs 4,640.88 crore and is to be completed in 54 months. The state would have a share of 49% power produced from the project, besides 13% free power under present norms governing hydel projects.

Infusion of large quantum of money and development of infrastructure resulting in overall socio-economic development of the area shall make up additional benefits.

Chenab Valley Power Projects is a joint venture of NHPC, JKSPDC and central trading utility PTC India Ltd and was formed in 2011 to harness the vast hydro power potential of the state. The joint venture also proposes to implement the Pakal Dul (1,000MW), Kwar (540 MW) and Dulhasti Stage-II (550MW) hydel projects in the Chenab river basin.

Kiru is a run-of-the-river project proposed on river Chenab near village Patharnakki in Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir. The project envisages construction of a 123-metre-high concrete gravity dam with four intakes, four pressure shafts, an underground powerhouse of 4 units of 156 MW each.

The catchment area of the project is 10225 sq. km. Total land to be acquired for the project is estimated at 179.78 hectares, out of which 82.05 hectare is forest land, 51.37 hectares government and 46.36 hectares private land. Length of reservoir would be 6.5 km with an area of 1.03 sq km.
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