Srinagar, May 15 — Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has questioned whether India can resume work on the long-stalled Tulbul Navigation Barrage project on Wullar Lake, following the Centre’s move to suspend the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan.
Sharing a video of the abandoned civil works at the site on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Abdullah stated, “The Wular lake in North Kashmir. The civil works you see in the video is the Tulbul Navigation Barrage. It was started in the early 1980s but had to be abandoned under pressure from Pakistan citing the Indus Water Treaty. Now that the IWT has been 'temporarily suspended' I wonder if we will be able to resume the project.”
He added that completing the Tulbul project would provide critical navigation and power generation benefits for the region.
The Tulbul Navigation Project, conceived to regulate water flow from the Wullar Lake into the Jhelum River, was halted decades ago following objections by Pakistan under the terms of the IWT. However, the central government’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance after the recent Pahalgam terror attack has reignited debate on India's water rights and potential infrastructure revival.
Abdullah’s remarks add political weight to calls for reconsidering long-pending infrastructure initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir.