Pune: Soon, you may be able to avoid noisy traffic jams during peak hours and instead relax on a cool boat ride on the Mula and Mutha rivers for at least part of your daily commute in the city. 

Member of Parliament from Pune, Anil Shirole, informed the press on Sunday that the Mula and Mutha rivers will be part of the National Waterways project. 

The procedure will be complete before the monsoon session of the Parliament, he said. 

"I met Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Transport about various issues and he told me that in the upcoming monsoon session, both rivers will be included in this project. The inclusion of Mula and Mutha rivers will reduce the vehicle burden on the city roads," Shirole said. 

He said he wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in October 2017 requesting the inclusion of Mula and Mutha rivers in the list of rivers for National Waterways Project. Development of inland waterways in Pune city as part of the Intra City Public Transport System and the National Waterways Project will improve the transport system for Pune, he stated in his letter to the Chief Minister. 

With reference to Shirole's letter, Fadnavis wrote to Gadkari on October 16, 2017 and requested him to include both rivers in the project. 

The Union Cabinet approved the amendments in 'The National Waterways Bill 2015' for enacting a Central Legislation to declare 106 additional inlands waterways as national waterways. After the inclusion of 106 additional inlands waterways to the existing five national waterways, the total number of national waterways will go up to 111.