Plans for power from Indus on

India will soon get going on plans to create nearly 12 giga watts (GW) of additional hydropower from new projects on the Indus rivers, for which feasibility studies have been ordered, two people aware of the matter said.

- Zia Haq

NEW DELHI:

Ongoing projects on the river system will add about 2.5 GW but construction of these hydropower plants have been hobbled by "constraints and unfavourable terms" of the now-paused Indus water treaty, an official said.

Authorities in the Jal Shakti ministry and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation are working to expedite all projects under construction, following a high-level meet chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah on April 25, the official added.

The country suspended the six-decade-old Indus water treaty with Pakistan, already strained by long-running disputes, a day after terrorists linked to the neighbouring country killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Pahalgam in south Kashmir on April 22.