A Pakistani delegation arrived in India on Sunday to visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, sources said.
Pakistan’s Indus Commissioner Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah arrived in Amritsar along with his two advisers, sources said.
“This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years,” a senior official said.
Since signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken.
The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014, respectively. No tour could be held in the current five years block, which ends in March 2020.
This tour will be followed by a visit of India’s Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date, the official added.
This tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three Indus tributaries—the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi—have been allotted to India, while the Chenab, the Jhelum and the Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan.
Shah will inspect the PakalDul dam and Lower Kalnaihydel power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said.
After the bilateral talks on the Indus Waters Treaty in August last year in Lahore, India rejected Pakistan’s objections on the construction of the 1,000MW PakalDul dam and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydropower projects on the Chenab river and invited Pakistani experts to visit the sites to address their concern.
“We are going to India on Sunday (today) via Wagah border,” Shah was quoted as saying in the Dawn.
The Pakistani delegation’s visit came after India’s Commissioner for Indus Waters Pradeep Kumar Saxena gave a nod for inspection of Indian hydro-power projects on Chenab basin from January 28 to January 31, earlier this month, it said.