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India Pushes Ahead with Mega 1856 MW Chenab Hydro Project Amid Indus Waters Treaty Freeze

The Sawalkot project, a run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant on the Chenab River in the Ramban and Udhampur districts of the Union Territory, was initially conceptualised in 1984 but had remained shelved for years due to objections raised by Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty framework.

As a response to the Pahalgam terror attack, India announced keeping the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance on April 23.

In a significant move following the effective suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, Centre has floated tenders for the construction of the long-pending 1856 MW Sawalkot Hydro Electric Project in Jammu and Kashmir, nearly four decades after it was first conceived.
The Sawalkot project, a run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant on the Chenab River in the Ramban and Udhampur districts of the Union Territory, was initially conceptualised in 1984 but had remained shelved for years due to objections raised by Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty framework.
With the treaty now on the backburner amid heightened bilateral tensions, India is pressing ahead with major infrastructure developments in the region. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) will oversee the project, with a sanctioned expenditure of Rs 209 crore, and a targeted completion timeline of 113 months.

Once operational, the Sawalkot Hydro Electric Project is expected to generate 7,994.73 million units of energy annually, thereby bolstering power supply in the energy-deficient northern grid as well as aiding industrial growth in the region.
The project is part of a broader plan by the government to construct seven key hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir with a total installed capacity of 5,388 MW. These include 1000 MW Pakal Dul HEP, 624 MW Kiru HEP, 540 MW Kawar HEP, 1856 MW Sawalakote HEP, 390 MW Kirthai-I, 930 MW Kirthai-II and 48 MW small hydro initiatives.
Construction work is already in advanced stages for Pakal Dul, Kawar, and Kiru projects.
Following the Pahalgam carnage that killed 26 innocent tourists in the Baisaran meadow in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, India had announced a raft of measures against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, the expulsion of Pakistani military attaches and the immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post.

What is the Indus Waters Treaty?

The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

The Indus river system comprises the main river, the Indus, and its tributaries. The Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Jhelum and Chenab are its left-bank tributaries, while the Kabul river, a right-bank tributary, does not flow through Indian territory.
The Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej are collectively referred to as the eastern rivers, while the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab are known as the western rivers. The water of this river system are crucial to both India and Pakistan.
At the time of Independence, the boundary demarcation between the two newly formed nations — India and Pakistan — cut through the Indus Basin, leaving India as the upper riparian and Pakistan as the lower riparian state.
Two key irrigation works — one at Madhopur on the Ravi and another at Ferozepur on the Sutlej — on which Punjab on Pakistan’s side was entirely dependent — ended up within the Indian territory.
This led to a dispute between the two countries over the utilisation of irrigation water from the existing infrastructure. Following negotiations facilitated by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now part of the World Bank Group), the Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960.
Under the treaty, India was granted exclusive rights to the water of the eastern rivers– the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — amounting to an average annual flow of about 33 million acre-feet (MAF).
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