J&K: Worry And Fear Of New Mountain Stream Near Kishanganga Project

A month ahead of the commissioning of the 330 MW Kishanganga Hydroelectric Power Project (HPP) built by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) in Bandipora district, a new water stream that has emerged from a nearby mountain is causing anxiety among villagers here in this north Kashmir district.

Seeping through the mountain, the water is coming down toward  the village through a stream.

Khanmeen Khan Gujjar, a local resident of Chak Matrigam, says he's unable to sleep after the sudden emergence of water stream from the nearby mountain area. The 55-year-old Khanmeen often comes out of his one-storey house located at what locals call Hawapari Mountain to check the water flow in the evening that is seeping through the mountain and moving down in the Valley.  “This water is giving us sleepless nights,” he says.

The NHPC on March 31 commissioned 330 MW Kishanganga HPP in Jammu and Kashmir.  

The project was scheduled to be commissioned in November 2016 but the construction work on the project, started in 2009, was stopped in 2016 after the unrest began in the valley over the killing of the militant commander Burhan Muzaffer Wani.

For several decades rainwater would pour down from the mountain toward the Chak Matrigam village whenever there was rainfall or snow.  The villagers would call this mountain stream as Nikaram nallla (stream) as in the 1980s the Border Roads Organization (BRO) employee Nikaram died of natural cause here and they named the stream after him. But now once dry Nikaram Nalla has become a full-fledged mountain stream.

Khanmeen Gujjar and other residents of the area, around 280 households, insist that the government should shift them to a safe place. “I feel anytime anything can happen here. The water flow is increasing every passing day,” says Khanmeen, who lives in the village with his four sons and two daughters. They fear it can tigger landslides.

About several kilometers from the Chak Matrigam, at the higher reaches of the Razdhan mountain on the road that leads to the Gurez Valley across Razdhan pass,11,672ft, above the sea level, workers of the NHPC were busy building a retaining wall on the side of mountain to give passage to leaking water from different places towards the Nikaram Nalla.

A foreman, who identified himself as Sham Sharma, said the water is leaking from one of the tunnels of the project. He downplayed the fears. “It is not a big issue. The NHPC has surveyed the area through helicopter and it has found that it is not that worrying, ” he says.

He says the water would likely flow like this for more than two years.  “It is nearly 24 km-long underground mountain tunnel and we don’t know where the leak has taken place,” he says.

The Kishanganga project has been designed to divert water of Kishanganga River near the LoC to underground Power House through nearly 24 KM long Head Race Tunnel to generate 1713 million units per annum. 

The dam is located near river Kishanganga, a tributary of river Jhelum, in Gurez Valley across the Razdhan pass. 

After diverting the Kishanganga water to the dam and then through 24.75 km long Headrace tunnel, the water flows to a powerhouse inside the mountain and then to Bonar stream and finally to the Wullar lake.

A senior official of the NHPC based in Bandipora said,  “When the water charges in the underground tunnel from the dam, new streams come up. It is nothing new. ”

The NHPC's Public Relations Officer (PRO) based in Faridabad didn’t respond to repeated phones calls and email on whether the fears of the villagers are genuine.

Local Congress legislator, Usman Majeed, says for time being it is pure water coming out from the mountain without any mud water and the NHPC is going to plug it using some chemical. “This water can be used for drinking purpose. Since villagers are worried, the NHPC will use some chemical to fix it," he says. "As of now, it is not a serious issue.” 

The legislator is happy that every year the NHPC will provide one percent profit it earns from the project for local area development. “That means Rs 12 crore annually," he says. "Bandipora will develop like anything.”