Himalayan Rivers Development envisages construction of storage reservoirs on the main Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their principal tributaries in India and Nepal along with inter-linking canal system to transfer surplus flows of the eastern tributaries of the Ganga to the West apart from linking of the main Brahmaputra with the Ganga. Apart from providing irrigation to an additional area of about 22 million hectares and generating about 30 million kilowatt of hydro-power, it will provide substantial flood control in the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin. The Scheme will benefit not only the States in the Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin, but also Nepal and Bangladesh, assuming river flow management treaties are successfully negotiated.
The Himalayan component would consist of a series of dams built along the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan for the purposes of storage.  Canals would be built to transfer surplus water from the eastern tributaries of the Ganga to the west.  This is expected to contribute to flood control measures in the Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins.  It could also provide excess water for the Farakka Barrage to flush out the silt at the port of Kolkata.
By 2015, fourteen inter-links under consideration for Himalayan component are as follows, with feasibility study status identified: