The biggest irrigation project in Uttar Pradesh — The Saryu Canal National Project, which will benefit 25-30 lakh farmers in nine eastern UP districts — Bahraich, Gonda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on 11 December 2021. The Saryu Canal project involves interlinking five rivers of eastern UP — Ghagra, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohin — through a network of canals to irrigate 1.4 lakh hectares of land in 6,200 villages. Many sub canals with a length of 6,600kms have been linked to the 318 km long main canal.

First conceptualized in the 1970s, the project got stalled several times because of issues such as land acquisition, erratic disbursement of funds, interdepartmental coordination, and adequate monitoring and was not completed for around fifty years. The project was only settled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government took active measures to complete it. In 2016, the project was brought under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. During the 2017 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, the people gave an overwhelming mandate to the BJP, and Yogi Adityanath was chosen as the Chief Minister of the state. By this time, even after a period of 47 years, only 52 per cent of the work had been accomplished. The double engine government with Prime Minister Modi at the center and Yogi Adityanath at the state completed the remaining 48 per cent of the work in four-and-a-half-years. The Saryu Canal National Project was built at a total cost of more than Rs 9,800 crore, out of which more than Rs 4,600 crore was provisioned after the Modi government took charge but the country had to pay 100 times more for the negligence of the previous governments.