SRINAGAR, Dec 24: Occupied Kashmir’s controversial Baglihar hydroelectric project will start partial operations by June, supplying much needed power, the disputed territory’s chief minister said.

Pakistan has said it fears the one-billion-dollar project could deprive its wheat-bowl state of Punjab of vital irrigation water. It says the dam violates a decades-old water sharing treaty brokered by the World Bank.

But India claims the Baglihar hydroelectric project on the Chenab River does not violate the pact and could go a long way to ending routine 12-hour blackouts plaguing the territory.

“The first phase of the 450-megawatt Baglihar Hydel power project will become operational by June, 2008,” Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Sunday night.

“The pace of work on the project had slowed, meaning the target date for completion was missed,” Mr Azad said, referring to objections raised by Pakistan.

The second phase would be completed in the “near future.” The project will “considerably improve” the power position in the Himalayan region, he said, giving no details on how much electricity would be generated by the initial start-up. The work on the project began in April 1999.

Occupied Kashmir has the potential to generate 20,000 megawatts of power, but less than 10 per cent of it has been exploited. Massive power theft has compounded the electricity woes with people refusing to pay power bills.

An expert appointed by the World Bank ruled earlier this year that the dam India is building in the disputed Kashmir region largely did not violate the water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.

The 1960 Indus Water Treaty governs the sharing of common river waters. Pakistan said it would be deprived of its rightful share of water from the Jhelum River.

At Pakistan’s request, the World Bank in 2005 appointed Prof Raymond Lafitte, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, to address differences with India over the dam being built in southern part of occupied Kashmir.

Under the terms of the 1960 treaty, the decision was final and binding on both parties, according to the World Bank.

Pakistani experts say the construction of the project will not only deprive Pakistan of 321,000 acre feet of water during the three months of Rabi season but will have far reaching consequences on agriculture. The project will cause serious setback to wheat production in Punjab.

Non-availability of irrigation water during Rabi would significantly reduce the yield or may cause complete crop failures if India goes to the maximum capacity in times of need in Pakistan.—Agencies