Pakistan News and Discussion-8

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>‘India will be allowed to change Baglihar design’</span></b>[/center]

<b>ISLAMABAD : It was unlikely that the World Bank would ask India to freeze its hydropower project on the River Chenab in Kashmir, despite indications that it would rule in Pakistan’s favour on the Baglihar dam project, government sources said on Sunday.</b>

Noting that the World Bank would probably ask India to modify the project’s design, foreign office sources said it was unlikely that Islamabad would appeal against the verdict at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Since over India had already completed over 80 percent of work on Baglihar, it seemed unlikely that the arbitrator would demand it close the project completely, observed a senior official at the Water and Power Ministry, on condition of anonymity.

“It could ask India to modify it (hydropower project) to a run-of-the-river project to satisfy Pakistan to some extent,” he said, adding that such a project was aimed at generating electricity without storing water in the reservoir. SANA

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