The Tulbul Project is a "navigation lock-cum-control structure" at the mouth of Wular Lake. According to the original Indian plan, the barrage was expected to be of long and wide, and would have a maximum storage capacity of of water. One aim was to regulate the release of water from the natural storage in the lake to maintain a minimum draught of in the river up to Baramulla during the lean winter months. The project was conceived in the early 1980s and work began in 1984. The average annual inflows or outflows from the lake is nearly 7 billion cubic meters