Initial work at Bhatinda refinery likely by 2011: LN Mittal

Steel czar Lakshmi N Mittal today said initial installations at the Bhatinda oil refinery is likely to come up in the first half of 2011 and the project is not facing any major hurdles.

"We are estimating first installations to be completed sometime in the first half of 2011," Mittal said in an interview to private news channel CNBC TV18.

There had been reports that Mittal has threatened to stop work on the Rs 18,919-crore oil refinery project at Bhatinda in Punjab unless the state government restored fiscal incentives it had taken away a few years ago.

"There is no problem as such... What we have been discussing with the Punjab government is about the facilities which they should provide to an investment of this size," Mittal said.

The steel tycoon said, he had been meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the officials of Punjab government and that they were supportive of the project.

State-owned HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment, Singapore -- a Lakshmi N Mittal group company, hold 49 per cent stake each in HPCL-Mittal Energy, the firm implementing the Bhatinda refinery project.