India Launches Two Major Chenab Projects Amid Indus Treaty Freeze | Exclusive | News18

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[00:00:00]Welcome back. You're watching Nation at 5. I'm Akanksha Swarup. Let's begin with a CNN-News18 exclusive news break this after putting Indus Treaty in a bind last year, India is now continuing to in fact focus on infrastructural projects. More importantly, even in terms of hydro electrification, India is continuing to strike Pakistan strategically as well.

[00:00:24]India has already started two big projects on the Chenab River. NHPC has begun work. The exclusive document that has been accessed here by CNN-News18 in fact also sheds light on these two projects for which let's quickly go across to Aman who's bringing us this piece of exclusive information. So, Aman, shed more light on these two critical projects and how beneficial will they be for India? Well, Akanksha, we all know that in the past many months the government has been fast-tracking all the hydroelectric projects which are coming up on the Chenab River. But, now two major projects will come up on the Chenab River amidst the Indus Water Treaty freeze. And this is a significant development with both strategic and political implications. What we are being told that India has initiated work on these two major infrastructure projects linked to the Chenab River system. One will be a large interbasin water diversion tunnel in Himachal Pradesh on the Chenab River. The other one is aimed at restoring the sediment management capability at the Salal Dam.

[00:01:29]Together, both these projects are worth nearly rupees 2,600 crore. The projects will be undertaken by the NHPC. And we have in a position exclusive documents put out by the NHPC for now starting work on both these projects. You know, these projects, Akanksha, are coming at a time when New Delhi has sharpened its approach towards utilization of waters from the western rivers governed under the now defunct Indus Water Treaty. The bigger of the two projects is the rupees 2,500 crore project which is the Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel project in Lahaul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. We all know Chenab River originates in Himachal Pradesh and now the proposal is to build an 8.7 km long tunnel to divert surplus water from the Chenab basin into the Beas River system. This is a big project because the tunnel will be formed a part of a larger inter-basin river linking initiative aimed at transferring water from the Chandra River, which is a tributary of the Chenab, towards the Beas basin through hydraulic structures and tunnels. This will be a 19-m high barrage is also proposed to be built you know, in the Lahaul Valley as part of this phase one construction. And of course, all these projects are in high altitude terrain of Lahaul-Spiti close to the strategic Himalayan belt where you know, India has also been expanding its infrastructure. But what will this do for the first time is divert the surplus water of the Chenab River into the Beas River basin, something that we could not do earlier due to the restrictions on the Indus Water Treaty.

[00:02:58]And this particular project is coming up just north to the Atal Tunnel in Rohtang. And you know, this development is not merely about hydropower engineering, you know, it's also about optimizing India's utilization of waters from the western rivers which so far we could not do till a couple of years back because the Indus Water Treaty was in operation being signed in 1960. And we all know how the three western rivers we could not utilize water from them. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi while abrogating this treaty and while saying this treaty is now history soon after the Pulwama attack had said that India will utilize all the rights to uh to uh to the water that it has. And these rivers will all be used by India now and Pakistan will have to depend on Indian wish whether these rivers waters will flow adequately to Pakistan or not. So, the Chenab-Beas Link project is now being viewed as a part of this broader effort to address that gap. It will also of course strengthen hydroelectric generation uh in that entire area. And you know, this is also expected to uh build in increase India's capacity to uh generate hydropower. The second big project, Akanksha, which is happening is the NHPC is now going to begin work on a second Chenab Lake intervention. This is a new tunnel, a diversion come sediment bypass tunnel at the very important Salal hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir. You know, Salal project carries considerable technical and strategic significance. You know, desiltation work at Salal was among the first visible operational measures initiated by India after the Indus Water Treaty was kept in abeyance soon after the Pehalgam terror attack. So, the Salal reservoir, Akanksha, has suffered from severe siltation for decades, and India could not do anything about it because of the Indus Water Treaty. But but now, since uh you know, the Indus Water Treaty is history, we are building even a new tunnel at the Salal hydroelectric project to increase our hydropower capacity and include uh ensure that the desiltation is carried out at a rapid pace. So, both these projects together, worth rupees 2,600 crores, NHPC has started the work, and this is only going to increase uh the pain for Pakistan when it comes uh to the three western rivers that flow from our territory into Pakistan.