New Delhi, May 17 -- India will begin sprucing up a network of Indus canals, beginning with the Kathua, New Partap and Ranbir channels for the first time since they were built over a century ago as well as sanction new ones to increase the country's nearly stagnant net-irrigated area, officials aware of the matter said.

The tasks will be carried out unfettered by the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which India suspended last month after terrorists killed 26 people in Pahalgam, a tourism hub in Kashmir. The treaty didn't allow or restricted India's ability to revamp, expand or create new water channels from the Indus basin rivers, despite a growing population, according to the Union government.

The rebuilding and expansion of canals l...