The Sutlej and the Beas in Punjab have been included in a project to develop 99 rivers nationwide as water highways, Union Minister for Road, Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.
He made the announcement at Bathinda, where he launched the construction of Rs. 18,000 crore worth of road projects to make Punjab the first State to have all major cities linked through four-or six-lane highways.
He laid the foundation for seven projects. Among them was the four-laning of the national highway from Bathinda to Chandigarh. The Rs. 3,342-crore project will connect Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
He said that by December, the four-laning of the Amritsar-Bathinda highway would begin at a cost of Rs. 3,800 crore, Jalandhar-Moga (Rs. 1,500 crore) and Moga-Barnala (Rs. 500 crore).
The Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway would be extended to the Himachal Pradesh border at a cost of Rs. 1,000 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said things had changed for the State after the BJP came to power at the Centre.
In the past five years, the UPA government had not sanctioned a single project for the State.
