Work on Tulbul goes on despite terror threat

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 27

New Delhi has not bowed to militant threats and Islamabad’s objections to the construction of Wular barrage or Tulbul navigation project with work continuing in full swing.

The cofferdam and auto spillover of the 439-foot-long and 40-foot-wide barrage with a navigation lock at Wular Lake near Ningli village in Sopore sub-district, nearly 50 km from Srinagar, has been completed, officials said. “We have completed 70 per cent work on the Tulbul navigation project and only 30 per cent is left. It may take us less than a year to complete construction,” said a senior government official.

He said damage to the Tulbul navigation project in the 2012 militant attack had been repaired and only gates remained to be put in place to make it functional. “Pilling work in the cofferdam and on the embankment of the Jhelum is at the final stage, after which we have to put the gates,” the official said.

The Wular barrage or Tulbul navigation project is an unresolved issue between New Delhi and Islamabad since 1984. It is a navigation control structure located at the mouth of the Wular Lake fed by the Jhelum.

India started work on this project in 1984 with the objective to regulate water from the lake in order to maintain a minimum flow of 4.5 feet in the river during the lean season from October to February.

The barrage will have a maximum storage capacity of 3,00,000 acre feet of water. Work was stopped in 1987 following Pakistan’s claim that it violated the World Bank-brokered 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.

India said the barrage was not in violation of the treaty and would be used to make the river navigable from Anantnag to Baramulla via Srinagar throughout the year.

Pakistan believed that Indian control over the Jheulm had the potential to disrupt its triple canal project — Upper Jhelum Canal, Upper Chenab Canal and Lower Bari Doab Canal. The construction site came under militant attack on August 28, 2012, as gunmen beat up workers and lobbed grenades at the construction site.

Assistant Executive Engineer Mohammad Aslam Zargar said, “Construction is for conservation of the Wular Lake. It is in conformity with the treaty and falls under its non-consumptive clause.” He said it would benefit both countries, particularly Kashmir.

Former Union water resources minister Saif-ud-din Soz said it is not a barrage but a navigation lock. During his tenure as water resources minister in 2009, he allowed a Pakistan delegation to visit the Tulbul navigation lock at Sopore. “There were misunderstandings from the distance but after the Pakistan delegation visited the construction site, it was satisfied. I am sure work must have been completed by this time,” Soz said.

He said the Tulbul lock was necessary to retain some 4.5 feet water for navigation of boats during the lean season of October to February.