The much awaited verdict on the Baglihar Hydel Project (BHP) has been given. Raymond Laffite, the World Bank appointed Swiss neutral expert (NE) arbitrating the protracted differences between India and Pakistan, gave his final judgment on February 12 in Bern, Switzerland. The final

report has given the BHP the ‘go ahead’. What is the road ahead for J&K? Seema Sridhar gives some answers

• What does the verdict say in response to each one of Pakistan’s objections?

The report vindicates the Indian position by extricating India from Pakistan’s allegation that the former has violated the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 (IWT), signed between the two countries on sharing of Indus waters. Design changes in the project being constructed over the Chenab in Doda district of J&K have been recommended. These include reductions in freeboard and pondage and increase in the height of the power intakes.

According to Pakistan, the designed height of the dam, 144.5 metres, resulted in a pondage of 37.50 MCM and this was 100 metres above the acceptable height for a run of the river project. Pakistan wanted the pondage level reduced to 6.22 MCM. The NE has arrived at a slightly lower value of 32.56 Million Cubic Metre (MCM) of maximum permissible pondage as against the earlier design by reducing the height of the freeboard at the head of the dam by 1.5 metres. As for raising the height of the intake “cills”, the higher the power intake tunnels, the lesser the chances of these being used for releasing huge quantities of stored water. Thus Pakistan’s concerns over issues of storage and flooding have been duly considered and cleared by recommending marginal changes in the earlier design well within the ambit of the provisions of the IWT.

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