Months after the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan, the Centre has given environmental clearance for the strategically important 1,856-MW Sawalkot hydroelectric project on the Chenab in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Stalled for nearly four decades due to forest clearance and rehabilitation issues, the project is one of India's largest hydropower schemes in the Chenab basin and a key part of the government's push to fully utilise its share of western river waters under the 1960 treaty. The Centre had suspended the IWT following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

The run-of-the-river project will be built by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) in two stages at an estimated cost of Rs 31,380 crore. It will be using the Chenab waters in Ramban

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