By IANS,
Chandigarh: The much-delayed Guru Gobind Singh Bathinda refinery project will start functioning from June 2011, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said here Wednesday.
“We have been informed that 54 percent of the project is complete and the refinery will start functioning from June 2011,” Badal told media here.
The refinery is a joint venture between the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Ltd (MEL).
Badal said that Rs.6,400 crore has already been spent on the Rs.18,919 crore project while equipment and machinery worth Rs.9,100 crore had been ordered.
The project would be completed ahead of schedule by April 2011, Badal said.
The HPCL-MEL (HMEL) joint venture officials recently announced that the carriage capacity of the refinery from Gujarat to Bathinda is being doubled.
This will make it the biggest petro-chemical hub in Asia.
HMEL officials said that the carriage capacity, initially envisaged at 9,000 million metric tonnes (MMT), is being doubled to 18,000 MMT per annum of crude oil.
Bathinda is about 240 km from here.