HPCL, Rajasthan officials meet to raise funds for refinery

JAIPUR: In a meeting held in Delhi on Tuesday, top officials of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Rajasthan government deliberated on the ways to raise capital to implement the Rs 43,129 crore refinery at Pachpadra.

Sources said the meeting was held between HPCL chairman and managing director M K Surana and additional chief secretary, finance, D B Gupta who thrashed out various options for raising the funds from banks.

As the state is going to polls in less than a year, the government is keen to lay the foundation stone for the project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that it does not lose out electorally. It was first expected that the prime minister will do the ritual in the month of September.

While the state government keeps waiting for the ground breaking ceremony to be done by Modi, his unavailability is pushing the deadline month by month.

When oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is now involved with the project, visited the state capital last month, he could not offer a clear deadline for the event and said the ground breaking will be done by the prime minister whenever he is available.

TOI tried to reach top officials in the state petroleum department several times to find the details of the meeting but there was no response.