The economic slowdown has come as a blessing in disguise for HPCL-Mittal Energy joint venture promoted Bhatinda oil refinery, the project cost has declined by Rs 500 crore to Rs 18,500 crore, a top HPCL official said.
"We have been able to bring down the project cost by Rs 500 crore due to economic slowdown. Earlier, the project cost was estimated at Rs 19,000 crore," Director (Finance) of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Bhaswar Mukherjee said here today on the sidelines of a CII-IIFT symposium.
The project includes a 9-million tonne capacity refinery and a crude pipeline between Mundra to Bhatinda. The project is on schedule.
"The mechanical work of project would be completed by December 2010 and would be on stream in financial year 2011. Production would be 10.5 million tonne though template capacity was 9 million tonne," Mukherjee said.
Thirty-five per cent of the physical construction has been completed, he said.
The subsidy issue with Punjab government did not have any impact on the project progress.
"Our JV partner L N Mittal group continues to pay their share of equity on time and recently they have honoured Rs 150 crore equity call," Mukherjee said.
