A bone of contention between India and Pakistan for long, the Kishenganga Hydro Electric Project (KHEP) is all set for inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. THE WEEK traces the long road to this strategic project close to the Line of Control that once seemed impossible due to challenges posed, apart from Pakistan, by harsh weather, geography and the situation in Kashmir.
What makes the project an engineering marvel is the 24.23 km long tunnel that diverts water from the Kishenganga, a tributary of Jhelum, known as river Neelam in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), in Gurez to run an underground 330 MW powerhouse at Bandipore in north Kashmir. From the powerhouse, the Kishenganaga ends up in Wular Lake after mixing with another river.
The generation of electricity—1,713 million units—from the project may not be a significant addition to the national grid, but the project has allowed India to assert its control over Kashmir's natural resources.
When the project was conceived by the UPA-1 in 2005-06, Pakistan invoked The Indus Water Treaty, the most enduring agreement between the two countries, and took the matter to Hague-based International Court of Arbitration.
Pakistan said the planned diversion of Kishenganga will impact the 1000 MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydro-Electric Project (NJHEP) it was constructing since 1989 downstream of the same river in PoK. The Court stayed the project in 2010 for three years.
But Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), which built the project, began work on the tunnel in May 2011 with Italian Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).
It was for the first time the TBM, which works like a giant earthworm and fixes concrete segment on the sides, was being used in the Himalayas.
A group of 20 Italian engineers and technician, including a woman, finished 14.5 km of the tunnel from Bandipore to Gurez in 30 months. The remaining portion from Gurez to Bandipore was completed by employing conventional drilling techniques.
''Transporting the TMB to Bandipore proved a huge challenge,'' said HCC Project Manager A.I. Benny. ''The machine's parts were transported to Bandipore in 160 container trucks. The tyres of the trucks had to be deflated to reduce their height a few inches to allow them to pass through Jawahar Tunnel at Banihal on Srinagar-Jammu highway.
In 2013, the Court ruled that the KHEP was a run-of-river project within the ambit of the Indus Water Treaty and that India may accordingly divert water from the Kishenganga for power generation with a rider that India is under an obligation to construct and operate the project in such a way as to maintain a minimum flow of water in the Kishenganga/Neelum river which was decided as 9 cumecs. Pakistan had also objected to the height of the dam at Gurez that India had already decided to reduce from a planned 98 meters to 37 meters.
The Court's ruling has encouraged India to construct more hydel projects on the three rivers—Jhelum, Chenab, and Sind—on which Pakistan has unrestricted rights under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty. That has caused a lot of anxiety in Pakistan, which is one of the water-stressed countries in Asia.
Surge shaft | Umer Asif
Nine years after the KHEP was initiated, it has successfully negotiated all challenges and the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) has already begun supplying power from outside.
''We and all our partners feel proud to have completed this strategic project,'' said Benny. “A few foreign companies from Germany and Italy worked with us on the project, but most of the workers, over 70 percent, were from Jammu and Kashmir''.
Benny said the HCC employed over 1400 workers from the state directly while another 900 indirectly benefited from the project.
He said the HCC workers, especially, those who came from hotter areas of India, braved harsh winter, the threat of avalanches and shelling from Pakistan to complete the project. He said the agitations in 2010 and 2016 disrupted the work for months.
''Many HCC workers from outside left in 2016. But most of us (senior staff) stayed put,'' he said. ''When the situation improved, the workers returned and the work was resumed.''
The biggest challenge to the project was posed by the harsh winter in Gurez where the temperature falls below -20 degrees Celsius. To overcome the challenge, the HCC adopted the Russian way of working in winter—half an hour break after every two hours of work and shifting the workers to a specially heated up portion of the tunnel and giving them something hot and sweet to drink. Those who had worked for 12 hours were allowed to report to work slightly late. The tunnel's entry was blocked with steel plates and air-curtains to stop icy winds.
The work on the dam wall and the three spillway channels were done under tarpaulins with heaters. To get the required temperature of 10 degrees at the time of pouring the concrete on the dam, water was first heated to 50 degrees due to freezing temperature in the area.
Underground power house at Bandipore deep inside a tunnel | Umer Asif
Then there was the looming threat of avalanches and medical emergencies which had to be airlifted. In 2016, several shells fired by Pakistan Army landed close to the dam. The workers and some residents took shelter in the tunnel.
''This project was completed amid challenges posed by the weather, shelling, and geography,'' said an engineer at Gurez. ''But we were all determined to complete this project, though it seemed impossible, initially.''
The construction of the tunnel played a major role in expediting the work. It provided an all-weather connectivity to Gurez and cut the distance between the two important components of the project—the dam and powerhouse—by 50 km. Surge shaft, the third important component of the project, which moderates the flow and absorbs a sudden increase in water pressure before the water leaves the tunnel and enters the pressure shaft, was built by digging 108 meters vertically down into a mountain over the powerhouse.
The residents of Gurez, which remains cut from outside world in winters, are now demanding that another tunnel between Gurez and Bandipore should be built to provide round the year connectivity to the area and reduce travel time between the two areas. They argue it will also help promote Gurez as a tourist destination.
''We will build a tunnel if the government asks us,'' said Senior Manager, Corporate Communication of HCC Vikram Singh Tanwar. Benny also agreed.'' If we get the contract, we will get it done,'' he said. ''It would cost some money but we can do it.''
The KHEP is a reality but Pakistan continues to raise objections. In 2016, it asked the World Bank, which brokered the Indus Water Treaty, to appoint a Court of Arbitration into the design of the KHEP and 850 MW Rattle project on the Chenab and claimed both were violations of the Indus Waters Treaty. India argued the objections were technical in nature and should be settled by a neutral expert, a notch lower than in the conflict resolution mechanism provided by the Treaty. The last round of talks with both countries was held by World Bank in September 2017. On Friday, Pakistan foreign office said the inauguration of the KHEP by India was a violation of water treaty between the two countries.
The NHPC paid compensation to 801 families, whose land or houses were affected by the project. That included 171 in the powerhouse at Bandipore and 610 in the dam area in Gurez. The higher compensation paid to people in Gurez has created a controversy. Those from Bandipore have accused the NHPC of discrimination and have decided to move court.
Jammu and Kashmir will get 12 per cent power as royalty from the project which will make no difference to its need for power especially in winters when the demand for electricity peaks. For many people in Kashmir, the project is another symbol of exploitation of natural resources of the state.
''This project means nothing to us,'' said a resident of Bandipore. ''The state government should have at least demanded to raise the royalty.''
Another said the flow of water in Kishenganag will considerably recede around August and there will not be enough water left in the three turbines.