Following India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), focus has once again turned to the long-stalled Tulbul Barrage Project, with renewed discussions on the possibility of resuming construction.
The barrage holds the potential to significantly boost the local economy by enhancing water management, connectivity, and hydroelectric potential, proponents say.
The navigation-cum-lock project on Wular Lake—the second-largest freshwater lake in Asia—was initiated in the 1980s to regulate water levels in the Jhelum River, ensure year-round water distribution, and promote inland navigation. However, work on the project was halted after Pakistan raised objections, claiming it violated the Indus Waters Treaty.
In the wake of the recent terror attack in Pahalgam and India’s subsequent suspension of the IWT, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reignited the debate. Sharing a video on social media on May 15, he wrote: “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.”
Abdullah argued that completing the barrage would benefit the region by facilitating navigation along the Jhelum and improving power generation, particularly during the winter months.
His remarks sparked a war of words with another former Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who accused him of “weaponising water.
Despite the political sparring, experts believe that resuming the Tulbul Barrage Project could significantly boost the local economy by enhancing water management, connectivity, and hydroelectric potential.
Professor Saifuddin Soz, former Union Minister for Water Resources told businessline that the completion of the project could have been advantageous to the local population by way of irrigation and drinking water.
He, however, believed that the project would not compromise the Indus Water Treaty. “The project does not divert water to any other place. It flows back into Jehlum”, Soz said.
In 2006, during multiple rounds of secretary-level talks with Pakistan as part of the composite dialogue framework, India reiterated its position that the Tulbul Barrage was not a storage facility, but a navigation structure.
Pakistan, on the other hand, maintained that the Tulbul project amounts to a barrage with a significant storage capacity—estimated at around 0.3 million acre-feet (approximately 0.369 billion cubic metres). From Islamabad’s perspective, such a structure violates the Indus Waters Treaty, which prohibits India from constructing storage facilities on the main stem of the Jhelum River.
Shahnawaz Hussain, a Valley based political analyst said that the suspension of Indus Water Treaty had again turned spotlight to the suspended projects like Tulbul. “The project undoubtedly is in the economic interest of the region”, he added.