Disputed dam sparks Indo-Pak race
R. SURYAMURTHY

New Delhi, April 15: India is planning to speed up work on a dam on the Jhelum to wrest the advantage from Pakistan, which recently awarded a contract for a power project on the river to a Chinese consortium.

The Kishenganga power project in Jammu and Kashmir is to be put on the fast track as it is of strategic importance, junior power minister Jairam Ramesh said.

India and Pakistan have been locked in a dispute over the dam for years. Kishenganga, the largest tributary of the Jhelum, flows across the Line of Control and is called Neelum in Pakistan.

Islamabad’s opposition to Delhi’s proposal to build a dam on the ground that this would impact its hydro-power project downstream has stalled the project so far.

But recently, Pakistan awarded the contract for a $1.5-billion power project on the river to a consortium of China’s Gezhouba Water and Power Company and China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation. The 960MW project is to come up in eight years.