Rs 2,500 crore PP plant in Ludhiana could follow Rs 18,900 crore GGSRL at Bhatinda

13-Feb-09

As construction is underway in full swing at the Rs 18,900 crore Guru Gobind Singh Refineries Ltd (GGSRL) being commissioned at Bathinda (Punjab), HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) is mulling the development of a Rs 2,500 crore polypropylene unit in Ludhiana to produce 400,000 tpa of PP. About 50% of the output will be consumed by Punjab state. The opening of the PP plant is expected to be concurrent with refinery project, scheduled to come onstream in February 2011. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) is a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore, (Lakshmi N Mittal Group Company). The JV partners hold a stake of 49% each in the company; Indian financial institutions hold the balance. The funding process for the project is complete. While the debt component is around Rs 11,000 crore, GGSRL has taken loans from 25 banks. The Life Insurance Corporation of India has also loaned an amount of Rs 7,793 crore to the project.