A team of neutral experts accompanied by a three-member Pakistani delegation Monday inspected the two under-construction power projects under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in the Kishtwar district.

The team of experts was airlifted to the Chenab valley region from where they were escorted to the project sites under tight security arrangements.  According to official sources, on their arrival in Kishtwar, the delegation visited the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) headquarters. From there they left for the 85 MW Ratle hydroelectric power project site at Drabshalla for dam inspection. The delegation was also scheduled to visit the 1,000 MW Pakal Dul hydroelectric project on river Marusudar, a tributary of river Chenab, and other power projects during their stay in Kishtwar.

This is the first visit by a Pakistani delegation to Jammu and Kashmir in more than five years under the dispute settlement mechanism of the 1960 treaty.

India and Pakistan signed the IWT after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory of the pact which sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two sides on the use of waters of several cross-border rivers.

A three-member Pakistan delegation inspected the Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai hydroelectric power projects under the provisions of the IWT for the last time in January 2019, before the ties between the two countries froze following the revocation of the special status of  Jammu and Kashmir.