New Delhi, May 14
In what is seen as a positive development in the talks between the two countries, India has agreed to forward ‘comprehensive technical data’ on the Tulbul Navigation Project/Wullar Barrage to Pakistan so that the two neighbours could find a solution to the 25-year-old dispute under the provision of the Indus Waters Treaty.

Once New Delhi had forwarded the data within one month, the Pakistani side would examine it and furnish its views to the Indian side by September 15.

“Both sides further agreed to take the matter forward in the light of the outcome of such technical consultations and in accordance with the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty,” said a joint statement issued by the two sides said at the conclusion of a two-day meeting between their water secretaries in Islamabad.

The Indian side was led by Water Resources Secretary Dhruv Vijai Singh while the Pakistani delegation was headed by Javed Iqbal, Secretary in Pakistan’s Water and Power Ministry.

MEA sources said the talks had gone off very well with both sides reiterating their commitment to bilateral engagement in a spirit of constructive cooperation to the Indus Waters Treaty.

This was the first interaction between the two countries at the level of senior officials since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces at Abbottabad in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the home/interior secretaries and commerce secretaries have held talks on ways to boost counter-terrorism cooperation and enhance trade cooperation respectively as part of the resumed peace talks on eight outstanding issues. The defence secretaries of the two countries are likely to meet later this month to discuss the Siachen issue.

The Tulbul navigation project at the mouth of the Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir has been a bone of contention between the two countries ever since India started work on it to make the Jhelum navigable in summer. The project was stopped after Islamabad complained that it would disrupt the flow of water into the Jhelum flowing into Pakistan, thus violating the Indus Waters Treaty. Attempts by New Delhi to dispel Islamabad’s misapprehensions arising from the project have gone waste with Pakistan threatening to internationalise the issue.

India contends that the project is not meant for storing water or increasing the size of the lake. It has also informed Pakistan that the release of water in winter will benefit Pakistani dams.