Lucknow, May 25 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh will now have a dedicated body to oversee the development of new waterways.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced the setting up of a new authority that would explore options of waterways and also work out policies to provide cheaper options of transport to give a boost to the micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state.

Yogi said that Uttar Pradesh's first waterway from Varanasi to Haldia was functional and the proposed authority should do its work by conducting a survey.

He said Uttar Pradesh had Yamuna Expressway while Agra-Lucknow Expressway was nearing completion when his government was installed in 2017.

The previous government had no concrete programme to connect east UP with the western part of the state and the major cities, the Chief Minister claimed.

Highlighting Uttar Pradesh's unlimited potential, he said the state government had projected this to the nation with the formulation of new schemes.

He also asked the MSME department to set up two institutes at Saharanpur and Aligarh to help entrepreneurs.

The institute should be set up in Saharanpur to provide world-class designs of wooden products to local entrepreneurs.

The other institute should help those setting up units in the Aligarh node of the defence corridor, he said.