India launches Rs 2,600 crore projects to divert Chenab river’s water

India has launched two major Chenab-linked projects worth nearly Rs 2,600 crore weeks after putting the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) framework with Pakistan in abeyance, with the Centre also moving to speed up work on several other projects in the region, according to a report published by various news channels in India.

The projects will be executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) as part of a wider push to increase India’s utilisation of waters governed under the 1960 treaty framework.

The larger of the two ventures is the Rs 2,352 crore Chenab–Beas Link Tunnel Project in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul-Spiti region. The proposal involves constructing an 8.7-km tunnel to divert surplus water from the Chenab basin into the Beas river system, it said. Pakistan has always protested against India’s water aggression which was tantamount to turning Pakistan into drought.