Sutlej and Beas have been included in the ambitious project in which 99 rivers across the country would be developed as water highways.
The Parliament is expected to grant its approval to the project in its Budget session.
Announcing this at Bathinda on Thursday, Union Minister of Road, Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari also launched the construction of Rs.18,000 crore worth of road projects that would make Punjab the first State in the country to have connectivity of all major cities through four or six lane highways.
Mr. Gadkari laid the foundation of seven projects, including the four-laning of the National Highway from Bathinda to Chandigarh. The project would be completed at a cost of Rs.3,342 crore and would connect Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Mr. Gadkari said that by December 2015, Punjab would also witness the initiation of the four-laning of Amritsar-Bathinda highway at a cost of Rs.3,800 crore, Jalandhar to Moga for Rs.1,500 crore, Moga-Barnala for Rs.500 crore, augmenting Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway up to Himachal Pradesh border for Rs.1,000 crore, Chandigarh-Ludhiana costing Rs.2,000 crore, Kurali-Kharar for Rs.300 crore, Rupnagar-Phagwara with Rs.1,000 crore investment, as well as construction of by-passes at Ladowal in Ludhiana costing Rs.315 crore and Amritsar-Attari at Rs.250 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that things had changed for the State after the formation of the NDA Government as during the last five years, the UPA Government had not cleared single project. He added that during a meeting three months ago, he had presented Mr.Gadkari the proposals for all these projects.
