India to ask World Bank expert to pause Indus dispute meetings

 

The office of Lino at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is adjudicating disputes raised by Pakistan regarding the Kishenganga and Ratle dams.

India is preparing to “brief” the World Bank and the bank-appointed neutral expert, Michel Lino, about its decision to not participate in forthcoming proceedings of the Indus treaty dispute-resolution mechanism in Vienna till the water-sharing pact with Pakistan remains suspended, according to an official.

Since the treaty is in abeyance, the government will ask Lino’s office to put upcoming meetings on hold, the official said.

The office of Lino at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is adjudicating disputes raised by Pakistan regarding the Kishenganga and Ratle dams, was due to hold a meeting in Vienna in November followed by a site visit. The last such meeting in Vienna was held in September 2023, in which India was represented by its counsel Harish Salve. This was followed by a site visit in 2024.

The country has maintained that there’s no need to notify the bank about its decision to pause what the official said was a bilateral treaty. India announced keeping the treaty in abeyance after terrorists massacred dozens of tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

“Since the treaty is now under suspension, there will be no participation in dispute resolution by the neutral expert under the treaty,” the official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

There are about seven counts of differences related to the operational 330-MW Kishanganga project in Gurez and the upcoming 850MW Ratle dam in the Chenab valley. The Kishanganga project is wholly owned by the National Hydropower Corporation, while Ratle is a joint venture between NHPC and the Jammu & Kashmir Power Development Corporation.

India had argued at the last Vienna meet that the pondage of 7.55 million cubic metres in the Kishanganga dam is within the limits of the maximum permitted pondage under para 8(C) of annexure D of the treaty.

Pakistan had first raised objections to India’s construction of the 330 MW Kishenganga hydroelectric project on the Jhelum river back in 2006, and then objected to plans to construct the 850 MW Ratle project on the Chenab river.