india

Updated: Jan 26, 2019 23:51 IST

A team from Pakistan is scheduled to visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection from January 28-31, local media reported on Saturday.

Pakistan’s Indus water commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehr Ali Shah will arrive in India along with two advisers, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, the report added.

In 2018, a nine-member team led by Indian commissioner for Indus waters, Pradeep Kumar Saxena, had visited Lahore and held talks over two days with its Pakistani counterparts on water disputes on the platform of the Pakistan-India Permanent Commission for Indus Waters (PCIW).

But soon after, India postponed the return inspection of its two hydropower projects — 1,000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnal — by Pakistani experts. The tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was put off because of local bodies and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

The proposed tour by the Pakistan team is likely to be followed by a visit by the Indian Indus commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date.

Kamal Majidullah, former advisor on water to ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said he was happy things were moving ahead. “What we are seeing is some movement from both sides. It is a positive development.”

Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three Indus tributaries — Sutlej, Beas and Ravi — have been allotted to India; while Chenab, Jhelum and Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan.

During the talks in 2018, Pakistan’s commissioner for Indus waters Shah raised objections and suggested possible solutions to the problem, taking into account India’s previous replies and feedback on design of Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnal projects.

It was on the basis of this that India agreed to get the sites of its two projects in the Chenab basin inspected by Pakistani experts. It also assured Pakistan that its objections over the two projects would be resolved amicably in the light of technical memoranda to be prepared and exchanged by the two countries at the next meeting of the Pakistan-India PCIW in New Delhi.

Since signing the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both sides have been undertaken by the commission.