WB expert recognises India's right to use Western rivers: Soz

New Delhi, Feb 12 (UNI) India today hailed World Bank Expert Ramon Lafitte's adjudication on the Baglihar run of the river hydel project across the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir, and said the expert had recognised India's right to utilise water of the Western rivers in the ambit of Indus Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan.

Articulating India's response to Mr Lafitte's decision released at Berne, Switzerland, Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz told newspersons tonight that the decision had gone in India's favour, and the hard work of the Indian team, led by noted lawyer Fali S Nariman, had paid off.

''The decision will generally not adversely affect the Rs 4,500 crore project deisigned to produce 450 mw of power and will not cause any undue burden of expenditure on the project which was to be completed by December 2007. Now the completion may be delayed by about three months,'' Prof Soz said.

He said the Neutral Expert had emphasised the need to incorporate the state-of-the-art technology projects built under the Indus Water Treaty for the reasons of safety and optimum utilisation of waters.

''The general rules of treaty interpretation allowed him to have recourse to rules of science and technology and the state of art practices, in his assessment of the concept and design of the Baglihar Dam and Hydro Electric Plant constrution,'' he said.

About the decision of Mr Lafitte, asking India to reduce the dam height by 1.5 metres, Prof Soz said India had offered possible reduction in the freeboard to Pakistan during the bilateral negotiations even before the issue was referred to the Neutral Expert.

Although Indus Treaty allows Western Rivers of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab for exclusive use of Pakistan, it allows construction of barrages for the purposes of hydro power generation.

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