(ET)
ONGC-owned state-run oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum ( HPCL) will award the licensor agreements this week to10 of the 12 vendors it needs for the upcoming Rs 43,130-crore project Barmerrefinery in Rajasthan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the 9-million tonne or 1.8 lakh bpd greenfield refinery at Pachpadra village in Barmer district of Rajasthan being set up in a 75:25 joint venture with the state administration. It is slated to be completed by end-2020. The foundation stone for the project was first laid in September 2013 by the then president of ruling Congress Sonia Gandhi.
But the project remained a non-starter as the state, which voted in a BJP government, reworked the project and changed incentive structure including an interest-free loan of 16,845 crore to HPCL to be paid back in 15 years from the commissioning of the project.
