To curb illegal mining in the Swan river, the Punjab irrigation department has prepared a Rs 500 crore project to channelise 20 km stretch of the river up to the Swan bridge.Education Minister Harjot Bains, who represents Anandpur Sahib constituency, told the Tribune that under the project the river would be channelised on both sides and water would be stored by making a dam. It would check rampant illegal mining, he said.Bains’ statement comes a day after the Tribune published a study by the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, conducted under the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), revealing large-scale illegal sand mining around the Swan bridge in Nangal subdivision, with an estimated 3.41 million cubic metres material extracted over the past two decades.The findings, based on satellite imagery and digital elevation models, form a key part of the NGT’s proceedings in a case related to illegal mining. Field verification has also confirmed active mining and crushing operations in the area, corroborating remote sensing data.According to the study, the scale of extraction has increased sharply over time. Annual extraction was estimated around 57,000 cubic metres between 2000 and 2013. This rose more than fourfold to about 2,42,000 cubic metres per year between 2013 and 2024.Bains said the government is looking into fundings of the report and will act accordingly.