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3 min readJammuFeb 10, 2026 02:02 PM IST
After Indus treaty suspension, Omar Abdullah says long-pending Chenab water lift, Tulbul barrage projects may finally take off in J&K. (File Photo)
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday expressed hope that work will soon begin on two long-pending water projects, following the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. The projects are: lifting water from the Chenab river for supply to Jammu city, and the Tulbul Navigation Barrage to regulate Jhelum waters in Kashmir.
He told the Legislative Assembly that work on these projects could not be taken up earlier because of the Indus Water Treaty. “We had given these proposals to the Asian Development Bank, but they did not permit them, and these got sabotaged under the Indus Water Treaty,” he said.
“Now, when the Indus Water Treaty has been put in abeyance, we are working on two things with the Government of India – first Tulbul navigation barrage for Jhelum near Sopore and secondly lifting of water from Chenab near Akhnoor for supply to Jammu city,” he said, adding that “efforts are in progress and I hope that work on both these projects will start soon”.
Responding to a question by BJP MLA Sham Lal Sharma about the steps being taken by the government to meet the water supply demand of the people living in areas under the jurisdiction of Jammu Municipal Corporation, Abdullah said, “We will have to think for meeting the water supply demand of Jammu for the next 30-40 years and through the traditional (present) water supply, we cannot meet it.”
The Indus Water Treaty, which allowed an uninterrupted flow of river waters from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to Pakistan, was put in abeyance by India following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year.
Abdullah has long opposed the IWT as the “most unfair treaty”, saying it has disadvantaged the people of Jammu and Kashmir by restraining the region from storing river waters and allowing only run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects. The Tulbul Navigation Project was conceived in the early 1980s, and work on it started in 1984. The project aimed to install drop gates at the mouth of Wular Lake near Sopore to regulate water levels in the Jhelum river, enabling navigation and generation of more electricity during winter.
However, following objections from Pakistan, the work on it was suspended in 1987.
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The Chenab Water Supply Scheme, too, is an old project aimed at meeting the water supply demand of the people of Jammu city. The project envisaged lifting water from the Chenab river near Akhnoor to supply people in Jammu city and its outskirts. At present, city residents are supplied water lifted from the Tawi river, whose capacity is falling short of meeting the growing demand of the fast-growing population.
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