Dams and ports

India must follow up on its promises to the region

The centrepiece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Afghanistan last Saturday was the inauguration of a dam in Afghanistan's Herat province which has been built with Indian assistance. Planning for the Salma Dam began in the mid-1970s, but because of years of political instability, work only began on it in earnest over a decade ago. Building it was difficult, as material from India had to be routed through Iran in order to avoid Pakistan; this significantly increased the costs and the time to completion. However, now that it is done, it is expected to produce 40-plus megawatts of power from next year, raising Afghanistan's total power capacity by as much as 10 per cent, and helping it move towards self-sufficiency in electricity generation. In addition, about 80,000 additional hectares of land will come under irrigation facilities. This is the latest achievement in India's series of investments in Afghanistan since the Pakistan-backed Taliban regime was toppled after 9/11 - the total sum invested is near $2 billion, and includes the money spent to build the country's parliament building in Kabul. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that this was the end of the "first generation" of India's large projects in Afghanistan, and hoped for a "second generation of such large and sustainable projects". Already, a series of 12 dams on the Kabul river are being planned.

For India, the strategic benefits of such projects are immense. They strengthen the weak central administration in Kabul and reduce the political salience of its Taliban challengers. They build a strong pro-India sentiment on the ground, and aid in throwing Pakistan's violent meddling in the country into sharp relief. The money spent on this project is far from wasted. And the money promised for other similar infrastructure and connectivity projects in India's neighbourhood is equally important. However, it appears the Salma Dam is, sadly, an outlier. Many projects that India promises the region simply fail to take off, or are needlessly delayed. Recently, Mr Modi, Mr Ghani, and the Iranian leadership signed a three-way agreement on the building and use of Chabahar port in Iran - an agreement too long in coming. The Chabahar port was promised long ago, but in the interim, Pakistan's plans with China regarding the nearby Gwadar port have moved much further along.

Examples of such tardiness - or even outright refusal of projects - abound. Plans to build a port for Sri Lanka and a pipeline for natural gas from Myanmar were mooted, but then rejected or delayed; in both cases, the People's Republic of China stepped in and took advantage of the opportunity. Even worse is the situation of the infrastructure connecting India's Northeast to Myanmar's Sittwe port, which is long behind schedule mainly because New Delhi has been tardy in fulfilling its responsibilities. Hopefully the inauguration of the Salma Dam, and the enormous benefits that flow to India from its existence, will lead to such opportunities elsewhere being followed up on with greater energy.