Srinagar: With Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday wondered if the long-stalled Tulbul Navigation Project on the Wular Lake- Asia’s second largest freshwater lake -in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district would be resumed.
“The Wular lake in North Kashmir. The civil works you see in the video is the Tulbul Navigation Barrage. It was started in the early 1980s but had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the Indus Water Treaty. Now that the IWT has been “temporarily suspended” I wonder if we will be able to resume the project,” Omar said in a post on X.
“It will give us the advantage of allowing us to use the Jhelum for navigation. It will also improve the power generation of downstream power projects, especially in winter,” he added.
The work on building the Tulbul Navigation Project began in the 1980s with the aim of releasing water from Wular Lake in a controlled way during the dry months from October to February. This would help maintain water levels for navigation and tourism.
India had argued that the IWT allows such non-consumptive use of water. However, Pakistan disagreed, saying that controlling water flow could harm its interests. Both countries, despite holding talks several times, never reached an agreement on the issue. The project was later stalled. UNI
