WB expert visits Baglihar dam site

NEW DELHI—World Bank Swiss neutral expert Raymond Lafitte on Sunday started inspection of the dam design and “peripheral setup” of the 450-MW controversial Baglihar hydel project in Doda district of Indian Held Kashmir.
“The team entered the project construction site at Chanderkote area of the district at around 1000 hrs. The team straight away went to the dam site and began inspecting its peripheral structures like the diversion tunnels,” a senior official was quoted as saying, according to a news report received here.
The 3-member Swiss team would be discussing the entire design with the Indian and Pakistani officials during the inspection tour after studying the flow of the Chenab river and the various data provided, the report said.
Six-member Pakistan’s delegation headed by Secretary Water and Power Ashfaq Mahmood is visiting the site along with Indian counterparts and World Bank neutral expert. The Pakistani representatives had brought along “documentary evidence” in support of their vewpoint, the report added. Lafitte, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, along with two other Swiss neutral experts, 6 Pakistani and 4 Indian officials had arrived in Jammu Saturday.
Lafitte was appointed the neutral expert to adjudicate on the Rs 45 billion power project by the World Bank in May under the terms of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty after Pakistan pointed out that the construction of the project was in violation of the treaty.
Under the treaty, the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi waters of the Indus branch were accorded to India while Jhelum, Chenab and Indus were given to Pakistan. Indian and Pakistani officials are scheduled to meet in New Delhi in November to discuss another power project being constructed on the Kishanganga river in IOK.
According to Pakistan, the design of Kishanganga project violates the Treaty. Officials of the two sides will visit the project site from November 7-9 before holding talks from Nov 10-12.
On the first day of its inspection of the Baglihar power project in Jammu and Kashmir, a World Bank team saw the dam site that is currently submerged by waters of the Chenab river. The team led by World Bank appointed neutral expert Raymond Laffitte started its work at 11 a.m. and spent most of the time at the dam site, officials of the Power Development Corporation (PDC), said.
The corporation is executing the 450MW project, whose construction has been opposed by Islamabad on the grounds that it violates the Indus Waters Treaty, which allows Pakistan to monitor the use of the waters of the Chenab, IANS reported. Under the 1960 pact, Pakistan can check any construction, or storage of water on three rivers — Chenab, Jhelum and Indus — flowing through Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said Laffitte posed a host of questions to engineers at the site, relating to the normal discharge of the flow of waters of the Chenab, the circumstances and the level of water when the two diversion tunnels of the project were choked, and the design of the dam. Laffitte also inspected the immediate surroundings of the project and sought to know about Pakistan’s objections to the project.
“I am here to understand things on the ground, please tell me what is your objection,” a PDC official quoted Laffitte as having asked Syed Jamat Ali Shah, leader of a team from Pakistan’s Indus Waters Commission. The official said Shah explained that the project’s design had several flaws. Shah also cited how the design had violated provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. PDC and a team of Indian officials contested the Pakistani version, citing their own interpretations.
The inspection will last three days. The team will also visit the catchment areas of Chenab Monday before travelling to Delhi Tuesday, officials said. Pakistan opted to refer the Baglihar project to the World Bank under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty after bilateral talks with India failed to resolve differences between the two sides.