Mittal nominates aides on board of Bhatinda refinery

India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal has included his close aides Sudhir Maheshwari and BP Banka on the board of the Rs 18,919-crore refinery project which he is undertaking with state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd.

Mittal has the right to appoint three members on the board of the Guru Gobind Singh Refineries Ltd "" the company implementing the nine-million tonne a year refinery project at Bhatinda in Punjab.

He named Sudhir Maheshwari, the man who looks after acquisitions by the steel magnate and heads his Indonesian company PT Ispat Indo, and old associate BP Banka to the board, sources said.

Mittal, who recently took a 49 per cent stake in the Bhatinda project through Mittal Energy Investments Pte Ltd has not named his third nominee on GGSRL board.

HPCL, which has a 49 per cent stake in GGSRL, has its Chairman Arun Balakrishnan, Director (Finance) C Ramulu and Director (Refineries) M A Tankiwala on the board of GGSRL.

Balakrishnan will be the chairman of GGSRL for first two years after which the post would go to a nominee of Mittal.

Prabh Das, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1981 batch from West Bengal cadre, will be the CEO of GGSRL. Das is currently the joint secretary (Refineries) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The sources said the refinery project, which was delayed for about a decade for want of a strategic partner, has been put on fast track since the entry of Mittal.