Neutral experts tour Ratle hydroelectric project amid IWT dispute

JAMMU — On the second day of their visit to the Ratle hydroelectric power project, the 40-member delegation of neutral experts today visited different units of the 850-megawatt Ratle project.

They had an extensive tour downstream of the project and tunnel areas where the powerhouse is being constructed.

Sources told the news agency KNO that the delegation spent around one and a half hours at the project site before moving to the nearby Drabshalla area and from where they returned to Kishtwar town.

“After reaching the Ratle project site, the delegation visited the downstream area to check the flow of the water after coming out of the tunnels. Thereafter, they visited the power station tunnel and then to the TC area. After that, they visited Drabshala before going back to Kishtwar,” said a source.

The delegation is expected to visit Doda district tomorrow during the day to check the flow of water in river Chenab, he added.

So far, the delegation has remained away from the media and nobody is allowed to talk to them and not even the workers in the Ratle power project. The delegation is accompanied by their own photographers-cum-videographers who are recording each and everything.

This delegation had landed in Jammu on June 23 and reached Kishtwar yesterday morning and visited the Ratle power project site to inspect it.

The delegation is on a four-day tour to the area after India had called for the settlement of issues by neutral experts as per the already laid down guidelines of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). Pakistan earlier had also requested the settlement through neutral experts but later on withdrew and had sought adjudication through a Court of Arbitration.

Pakistan had raised objections to the design features of the Ratle hydroelectric power project and the Kishanganga hydroelectric power project.

The 850-megawatt Ratle power project is a run-of-the-river project which was started 11 years ago when on June 25, 2013, the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone from Chowgan ground at Kishtwar. The project was delayed after some internal issues and also when the construction GVK Reddy group had ended the agreement with the government.