The Supreme Court asked the Centre to file a progress report by April 23 on the Rs 5,00,000 crore river networking project to link major rivers by 2016 in which the second phase of work has already begun. During the resumed hearing of the matter before a Bench of Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice A R Lakshmanan, Ministry of Water Resources informed the court about the steps taken by the Task Force set up by the Government in this regard. In an affidavit filed in the court, the Ministry said the Task Force held dialogues with State Governments to forge a consenus on acceptable linkages or alternatives. Centre's counsel Sayed Naqvi said a Critical Review Group (CRG) was constituted in June 2003 which will try to achieve a consensus among the states after a review of National Water Development Agency (NWDA) proposed links.