South Yorkshire MP Angela Smith said Barnsley businessman Tony Hickton's idea to improve transport links would need to provide value for money.
Mr Hickton said current routes between the two cities were not good enough.
He said a road and rail tunnel from around junction 36 of the M1 to the M67 would boost the economy.
The Penistone and Stocksbridge Labour MP said: "The economic impact of improving the link between Sheffield and Manchester shouldn't be underestimated.
"You can't put motorways through national parks, we've got to protect those very precious landscapes.
"If you stand above the Woodhead Pass and look down on it and see all those HGVs, it's a real blight on that beautiful landscape, and anyone who uses the road knows how difficult it is to use.
"So clearly there has to be a solution somewhere along the line to this problem."
Mr Hickton, from construction inspection company Hickton, said it could be built using a mixture of private and state funding.
He added: "These tunnels won't be built tomorrow, but if we don't press the button now, we'll never be ready, so why not now?"

The Ramsdens Discount Department Store on Cleethorpe Road was opened in 1946.
The company said there would be some redundancies, but added it hoped "to be able to offer alternative employment to some employees".
Last year planning permission was granted by North East Lincolnshire Council to redevelop the site into a new retail park.
The store is expected to close over the summer.
In a statement, the firm's directors said the store had "continued to decline in what has become a very tough and competitive local market".
It added its nearby Home Interiors store would continue to trade.

They will meet on Monday afternoon to decide their response.
The boss of the bank has described this plan as getting "several holes in one in a row".
Golfers will know how hard that is and the wind of political risk has just picked up.
If they do decide the plan is now too risky then the government may have no choice but to nationalise the bank.
That would trigger a so-called "bail in" which means people who lent the bank money would have to write it off.
Unfortunately, 65% of those creditors are ordinary retail investors so the damage would be widespread and politically toxic.
There is another option.
The Italian government could decide to simply break the rules and nationalise the bank without hitting small investors.
That might be politically expedient but would be bitterly opposed in Germany and would set back immeasurably the project of banking union (separating the financial risk of banks from their governments - a move that came in response to the eurozone crisis of 2012).
The money comes directly out of some small investors' pockets or it comes out of every citizen's taxes.
The latter would be seen across Europe as a massive defeat in the battle to make sure taxpayers are not the first port of call when a bank fails.
The fate of Europe's oldest and weakest bank has ramifications not just for Italy but for the entire European banking reform project.
A proposal to build a tunnel through the Peak District, linking Sheffield and Manchester, should be looked at according to the area's MP.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Up to 47 jobs are at risk after a Grimsby shop confirmed it is to close after nearly 70 years of trading.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Although the share price of Europe's oldest bank Monte dei Paschi is little changed this morning, that may not last if the consortium of investors planning a â‚¬5bn cash injection abandon their rescue attempt amid the political vacuum opened up by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's departure.