The idea of the grandest waterworks of all was resurrected not by engineers but by a lawyer, Ranjit Kumar, who in 2002 petitioned India’s Supreme Court to force the government to take the long-standing scheme off the shelf and implement it. In a 5 May 2005 ruling, the court decreed that the project must start by 2007 and the bulk of it be completed by 2016. In response to concerns from Bangladesh, which gets most of its fresh water from Himalaya-fed rivers, India has pledged to hold off on part of the project that would tie Himalayan rivers into the scheme.