Private companies Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Essar Oil Ltd have joined as solar distributor to supply diesel to the Indian Railways for the next year, a business so far dominated by public sector companies.
With bulk diesel prices now market-linked, private refiners are keen to get a share of this 2.5-million-tonne business. The Railways are the country’s single largest consumer of high-speed diesel (HSD).
The tenders for the next calendar year opened on Wednesday. Essar has bid for one location – Gujarat – while Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has bid for 11 locations.
“We had been supplying earlier, but because of the subsidy issue (public sector companies were selling the fuel at Government-controlled prices and getting reimbursed), we had stopped,” a senior RIL official said.
