Talking to media soon after taking office, Dasmunshi said he would examine the task force report placed before water resources ministry during the previous BJP-led government.

The new government will also review the feasibility of the proposed river interconnection project and cost involved in it, he added.

As per the previous government's plan, the project, estimated at a whooping cost of $100 billion, will be implemented in a decade.

Dasmunshi will study two action plans submitted by the task force, headed by India's former Power Minister and Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu, and discuss the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before deciding their course of action.

Asked on the problem of people being displaced once the proposed project is being implemented and also due to construction of some other dams, he said the new government's highest priority is to attend to "human problems as also environmental problems that might arise in execution of any project."

Agreeing that the country requires augmentation of water sources on a larger scale, the minister, however, said it can not be done at the cost of human lives and destroying their habitation.

What is needed is a collective approach to the whole issue and that without any confrontation, he added.