SIX MONTHS AFTER CLEARANCE, NHPC IS YET TO AWARD INDIA’S FIRST WESTERN-RIVERS DIVERSION PROJECT; DEHAR POWER HOUSE IDLE SINCE MARCH
Face2News/Chandigarh
India’s first project to divert the waters of a western river into the eastern rivers, the ₹2,352-crore Chenab–Beas Link Tunnel at Koksar in Lahaul-Spiti, is still without a contractor six months after its tender was first issued, KBS Sidhu, former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, has pointed out in a D.O. letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister Shri C.R. Paatil.
Drawing lessons from the collapse inside the Fifth Extension (Tunnel Five) works at Pakistan's Tarbela Dam on the Indus on 9 November, which flooded the tunnel and powerhouse, KBS Sidhu has urged that the tunnel be monitored at the Ministry level and placed on the Prime Minister's PRAGATI review.
KBS Sidhu, who also served as Principal Secretary, Irrigation, Punjab, and is Convener of the
Shiromani Punjab Forum, a non-partisan and independent think tank, noted that the Tarbela
collapse was the second failure at the Chinese-built T-5 project within months, after a cofferdam
collapse earlier this year, and that its cost has risen from Pakistani Rs 82 billion to some
Pakistani Rs 317 billion. The dam itself is intact, but Pakistan's grid will lose 1,530 MW of
expected capacity for at least two more years. "Pakistan's projects fail through haste; ours stall through drift. We can afford neither," KBS Sidhu said.KBS Sidhu recalled that since the Indus Waters Treaty was placed in abeyance after the Pahalgam
massacre in April 2025, India has consistently held that it will harness the waters of the western
rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, for consumptive use.The Union Minister himself has publicly assured that India would fully utilise its share within one and a half to two years. The first substantial project announced under that policy is the Chenab–Beas Link, being executed by NHPC Ltd: a barrage on the Chandra at Koksar and an 8.7-km tunnel through the Pir Panjal, carrying water to the Beas above Manali and onward through Pandoh, Dehar and Bhakra.
Yet, KBS Sidhu pointed out, NHPC's tender of 20 May 2026 was reported cancelled within three
days, revived in June, and closed for bids on 24 July, with no award announced since. Forest land
at Koksar was still being processed as late as August. With a 49-month construction schedule
from the date of award, the project cannot meet the Minister's own timeline unless it is pushed
from the top.Such oversight, KBS Sidhu argued, would ensure that inter-ministerial and Centre–State matters,
including environmental and forest clearances, tribal consent and geostrategic issues, are
resolved on a fixed calendar rather than left to the board-level tender cycle of a public sector
undertaking. He has also sought an independent geological and dam-safety review before award,
in the light of Tarbela, and asked that the Shahpurkandi powerhouses and the Ujh Multipurpose
Project on the Ravi be included in the same review.KBS Sidhu cited former BBMB Chairman Devendra Kumar Sharma's estimate that India still
uses only about 28 MAF of its 33 MAF eastern-rivers share, with 5 to 6 MAF of its own water
crossing the border every year.It may be recalled that KBS Sidhu has earlier sent the Union Government a draft central law to
abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty and create a statutory Western Rivers Development Authority.
Under that draft, the riparian State of Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Jammu
and Kashmir and Ladakh, together with Punjab as the next contiguous State, would have the
right of first use of the western-rivers waters, which could be channelled through the existing
Ravi–Beas system. The forty-seven years since the 1979 Ranjit Sagar (Thein) Dam agreement,
with Shahpurkandi still not fully operational, show what happens when such projects are left to
inter-State drift, he said.KBS Sidhu has also appealed to the Minister to expedite the restoration of the Dehar Power
House of the Beas–Sutlej Link, whose six 165-MW units have stood idle since 4 March 2026 after
silt damage, with no worthwhile repair so far and a heavy loss of generation. As the Bhakra Beas
Management Board functions under the Ministry of Power, he has endorsed a copy of the letter
to the Union Power Secretary on this point.Copies of the letter have also been sent to the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the
Cabinet Secretary, the Secretary, Department of Water Resources, and the Secretary, Ministry of
Power.
