Pak team inspects dam site of Pakal Dul power project

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 29

A high-level Pakistani team of the Permanent Indus Commission on Tuesday visited the dam site of the 1,000-MW Pakal Dul hydro-electric project being built on the Chenab river basin in Kishtwar district.

The team, headed by Pakistan’s Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah along with Ushamn E Ghani and Tahir Mehmood Hayat, was accompanied by PK Saxena, Indian Commissioner for Indus Waters, and other senior officers of the Indian commission and J&K State Power Development Corporation.

“The team remained at the site for almost two hours and inspected the project to see whether it is being built under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). It is yet not clear as what exactly transpired between the two sides during the visit but it spent almost two hours and looked into all aspects of the project,” a senior official of the administration told The Tribune. The official said the Pakistani team was briefed about all technical issues involved in the project and it was apparently impressed upon by their Indian counterparts that the project was being built in adherence to the IWT.

The team had reached Kishtwar on Monday late evening. “The next schedule of the team is yet to be finalised, but the joint delegation is expected to visit and inspect the Lower Kalnai, Rattle and Baghlihar hydro-electric projects before its return to New Delhi on January 31,” the official said.

The visit was originally scheduled in October last year but was postponed because of the urban local bodies and panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir.