India and Pakistan to Continue Talks Over Hydropower Projects this Week: Report

Islamabad: Pakistan will reiterate its serious objections over two water storage and hydropower projects being built by India during a meet with New Delhi this week in Lahore. A government official told Dawn news on Sunday that Indian Water Commissioner P.K Saxena, along with a delegation, was expected to reach Lahore on Tuesday to begin the discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Syed Mehr Ali Shah from Wednesday.

The official said Pakistan would raise its concerns over the 1000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on two different tributaries of River Chenab despite Islamabad’s serious objections over their designs. Pakistan has been raising reservations over the designs of the two projects and would like India to either modify it to make them compliant to 1960 Indus Waters Treaty or put the hydropower projects on hold until an understanding is reached between the two sides.

The official said Islamabad and New Delhi would also finalize the schedule of future meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission and visits of the teams of the Indus commissioners. He said that the water commissioners of Pakistan and India were required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects’ sites and critical river head works, but Pakistan had been facing a lot of problems in timely meetings and visits. The two-day session is also expected to discuss ways and means for timely and smooth sharing of hydrological data on shared rivers. (IANS)