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India accelerates four hydro projects after treaty

suspension

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Pakistan says attempts to divert water could be 'act of

war'

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Pakistan depends on the Indus system for 80% of its farms

By Aftab Ahmed and Sarita Chaganti Singh

SRINAGAR, May 6 (Reuters) - India has advanced the start

date of four under-construction hydropower projects in the

Kashmir region by months after suspending a water-sharing treaty

with Pakistan that had slowed progress, according to an industry

source and a government document.

The updated schedule for the projects, whose construction

Pakistan generally opposes because it fears it would lead to

less water downstream, is another sign of how India is trying to

take advantage of its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters

Treaty of 1960 following a deadly attack in Kashmir last month.

India has said two of the "terrorists" who killed 26 men at

a popular tourist site in Kashmir on April 22 came from

Pakistan, and has taken a series of diplomatic and economic

steps against Islamabad as ties between the nuclear-armed

neighbours nosedive.

Islamabad has denied any role in the attack, threatened

legal action over the suspension, and said any "attempt to stop

or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan ... will be

considered as an act of war". Pakistan depends on the Indus

system for 80% of its farms and most of its hydroelectric

output.

The armies have exchanged small arms fire across the

border every night for nearly two weeks and Pakistan says India

is on the verge of a military assault.

New Delhi has so far ignored Pakistan's threats and made

moves that have already throttled water supplies to Pakistan,

including by running maintenance work to raise the holding

capacity of two operational hydroelectric plants in the federal

territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has asked

authorities to clear hurdles to speedy construction of four

hydro projects with a combined capacity of 3,014 megawatts,

according to the document, an undated list made by the power

ministry and reviewed by Reuters.

The four projects are: Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Kiru (624 MW),

Kwar (540 MW) and Ratle (850 MW). All of them are on the Chenab

River, whose waters are mainly meant for Pakistan but India is

allowed to build run-of-water hydro projects without any

significant storage.

State-run NHPC, India's biggest hydropower

company, is building all the projects. They are due to start

between June 2026 and August 2028, the document shows.

Various agencies, including those looking at law enforcement

and labour supply, have been asked to help speed up the work,

according to the document.

NHPC and the Indian ministries of power, water resources and

foreign affairs did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

Pakistan's Indus River System Authority said its

officials held a meeting on Monday and "noted with concern

unanimously that a sudden decrease in River Chenab inflows at

Marala (the headworks that regulates flow) due to short supply

by India would result in more shortages" for summer crops.

Downstream reservoirs would be used pragmatically

"keeping in view the crisis created by Indian short supplies in

the Chenab River", the authority said in a statement late on

Monday.

'PLANS FOR MORE'

India's water minister vowed last month to "ensure no drop

of the Indus River's water reaches Pakistan".

The Indian industry source said there had been several

meetings of officials from various private and government

agencies with the power ministry in the past week about projects

in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Generally, instructions to fast-track existing projects

like this mean that the government wants to plan new ones," said

the source, who declined to be identified since the issue was

sensitive.

In total, India wants work expedited on a total of seven

projects with a combined capacity of 7 gigawatts, costing about

400 billion rupees (about $4.73 billion). Reuters could not

identify all the projects.

Pakistan and India are already in dispute over Ratle in the

Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. The dispute is

about the pondage, or small water storage area, the turbine

design and some other specifications.

The water treaty had required New Delhi to share with

Islamabad extensive details on projects on the three Indus

rivers meant for Pakistan - the Indus itself, the Chenab and the

Jhelum. Modi's government has been seeking a modification of the

treaty citing India's population growth and the need for more

cleaner forms of energy like hydropower.

While government officials and experts on both sides had

said India would not be able to stop water flows immediately, as

the treaty allowed it only to build plants which do not require

significant storage dams, a Pakistan official said flows from

the Chenab river had already fallen drastically.

Since Sunday, the water flow has fallen by 90% from usual

levels, Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, a spokesperson for

Pakistan's Indus River System Authority, told Bloomberg News.

A source at Pakistan's Indus authority said there have been

major swings in Chenab flow since Sunday, when water at the

Marala headworks was 31,000 cusecs, then fell to 3,100 cusecs on

Monday, and was now back up to 25,000.

"The variations in the water supply are because of

India's work at (some hydro projects)," said the source. "They

can do these variations where they stop water and then dump. The

magnitude of these variations can't cause major damage ... but

they do impact the canals."