Interview For Mrl Chiefs Post Today

A record number of 16 candidates are in fray for the post of Madras Refineries Ltd (MRL) chairman and managing director.

Interviews for the post will be held by the Public Enterprises Selection Board today.

The forerunners in the race are S N Jha, M S Ramachandran, V Shamsunder and P Banerjee, all executive directors of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), and O C Verghese, director (production) of Cochin Refineries Ltd (CRL).

The post of the MRL chief had fallen vacant after the removal of N S Ravikumar from the post about six months ago.

Ravikumar has been posted as executive director of the Centre for High Technology.

 

MRL was incorporated on December 30, 1965, as a public limited company with an authorised capital of Rs 13.5 crore pursuant to the formation agreement between the Government of India, Iran Oil Company and Amoco India Inc of the USA.

MRLs refining capacity was increased from 2.5 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) to 2.8 MMTPA in 1980 through debottlenecking steps. Subsequently, the refining capacity was doubled to 5.6 MMTPA in 1984-85 at a cost of Rs 170 crore.

The overall refining capacity was enhanced further to 6.5 MMTPA in March 1993. With the commissioning of Cauvery Basin Refinery during 1993-94, the total refining capacity has increased to seven MMTPA.