Government of Jammu and Kashmir is said to have had a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India to receive the project at a depreciated cost. However, according to the National Conference party, the coalition government in power at 1985, run by the Ghulam Mohammad Shah-wing of the National Conference and the Indian National Congress, surrendered the state's rights over the project. The state of Jammu and Kashmir receives 12.5 percent of the energy generated from the project. The rest is transmitted to the Northern Grid where it is distributed to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Jammu and Kashmir also purchases additional power at regular prices. Siltation Sediment is a serious problem among Himalayan rivers (since the Himalayas are young mountains). The Chenab river, especially, carries more silt than the others even among the 'Western Rivers'. Its annual silt load is estimated to be . From the very first year of operation, the reservoir of the Salal dam started silting up. Two severe floods in 1988 and 1992 further accelerated the siltation. Within five years, the reservoir got silted up almost entirely. As a result, the reservoir capacity got reduced from the intended to . As per the 1978 Salal agreement, the reservoir had to be maintained at Constant Full Reservoir Level at 487.68 m asl. Six under-sluices that were provided during the construction had to be plugged at the beginning of operation. Consequently, the high spillway gates form the only live storage of the reservoir. The rest is dead storage, which ended up acting as a siltation tank. To alleviate the problem, the spillway gates are being opened at least once a month during the monsoon season as a desilting mechanism, with a discharge of about 4,250 cumecs. This is reported to have recovered some of the reservoir capacity, increasing it to . As the spillway and the power intake are continuously passing sand, they cause abrasion damage to the spillway concrete structure and the turbine equipment. Studies report erosion in the civil structures such as the concrete sill of the spillway, the glacis and the bucket; damage to the turbine components such as cracks in the turbine blades, knife edging of the outer edges and washing out of other components; damage to the cooling system such as tubes being choked with stator faults encountered. NHPC has been using various technical