Abstract
In this study the main focus is upon harnessing the water resource potential of perennial river originating from the Himalayas in order to irrigate the arid and semi-arid part of north-west India. The remote sensing technique offers great scope in providing identification and mapping of link channel for two different rivers which flow in two different directions. The present study is an attempt to use remote sensing technique for preparing the development plan for Indian desert and semi-desert regions through diverting the flood waters of the Himachal Himalayas and Uttrakhand without lifting towards Western Rajasthan and Northern Gujarat Plains. The study revealed that after the implementation of the proposed plan, north-west India will be largest food grain producing and irrigated area of the world. The significance of the plan could be compared to the status of the Kaveri River in South India and Nile River in Egypt.

Study Area :
The present study area lies between 21o45' north to 33o00' north latitudes and 70o00' east to 78o00' east longitudes. Geographically this region is the part of desert and semi desert of north-west India in the Indian Sub-continent (Fig. 1). The new Maru-Ganga channel will flow from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat states of India. Climatically this region falls in the arid and semi-arid part of north and west India. The characteristic features of the climate of the areas is its dryness, extremes of temperature, erratic nature of the rainfall, high evaporation and wind velocity. The average annual rainfall is only 370 mm. The minimum temperature often falls below freezing point in January and maximum temperature recorded during the month of May and June is 40o to 45o centigrade. The region is swept by dust storms and thunder storms during summer and pre monsoon months. More than ninety per cent of rainfall occurs in the months of July to September every year. Only some amount of rainfall is received by western disturbance in winter season.

Material and Methods:
The study area is covered in 15 satellite imagery i.e. different dates in black and white and colour composites transparency and paper prints for visual interpretation. The false colour transparency of million scale was brought on 1:2,50,000 scale to make the study comprehensive. Indian topographical sheets and maps were also used for study purpose. The details of satellite imagery and topographical maps are given in Table-1. For the visual interpretation of the remotely sensed data, ground truth collection and field verification are essential to eliminate the doubts and hence, ground truth data have been collected from the field. Apart from the data inferred from the satellite imagery, topographical maps and field survey, the relevant data were also collected from secondary sources