NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan on Tuesday resumed talks here on the Tulbul navigation project (Pakistan calls it Wullar barrage) at the Wullar Lake on the Jhelum in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Secretary-level talks were inconclusive with each side reiterating its position. It is after nearly a year that both sides have picked up the thread on Tulbul, now part of the composite dialogue process.

Pakistan's Water and Power Secretary Ashfaq Mahmood led an eight-member delegation. The Indian side is headed by Water Resources Secretary J. Hari Narayan.

At the last round of talks held in Islamabad in July 2004, it was agreed that discussions would continue to find a solution to the issue consistent with the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

Describing the marathon talks as "cordial and satisfactory", Mr. Narayan said the exercise would continue on Wednesday. Sources said both sides might come up with a joint declaration.

India for revival of work

India is insisting on revival of work on the project, suspended in 1987. The project was conceived in the 1980s and work began in 1984. It was stopped midway in 1987 after Islamabad raised objections.

The Jhelum, which flows through the Kashmir valley, provides an important means of transportation of goods and movement of people. To sustain navigation throughout the year it is considered necessary to maintain a minimum depth of water, which will permit movement of boats.

The Tulbul project is a "navigation lock-cum-control structure" at the mouth of the Wullar Lake. It envisages regulated water release from the natural storage in the lake to maintain a minimum draught of 4.5 feet in the river up to Baramulla during the lean winter months.

This is to ensure round-the year navigation from Anantnag to Srinagar to Baramulla, a distance of over 20 km.

India holds that this is permissible under the treaty, while Pakistan maintains that the project is a violation of the treaty. India says suspension of work is harming the interests of people of Jammu and Kashmir and also depriving people of Pakistan of irrigation and power benefits that may accrue from regulated water releases.

The Treaty divided the six rivers of Punjab between India and Pakistan. India got unrestricted use of the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej, and Pakistan got the three western rivers of Chenab, Indus and Jhelum.

The Treaty also allows either country to have restricted access for domestic and agriculture use, generation of hydroelectric power through a "run-of-the-river" project and non-consumptive use including navigation provided the same quantum of water is returned to the river.

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