Anil Ambani stays closeted with PM for an hour

Reliance Natural Resources Ltd head Anil Ambani met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his official residence this morning, just days after the Supreme Court ordered re-negotiation of the Krishna-Godavari gas supply pact with his older brother's Reliance Industries.

Before his hour-long meeting with Singh, Ambani also met the prime minister's principal secretary T K A Nair for about 10 minutes. He is also expected to meet power secretary P Uma Shankar and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde later in the day.

Ambani declined comment on the purpose of the meeting. Senior officials at the prime minister's office said Manmohan Singh meets with industrialists from time to time, and this was another such engagement.

Earlier on 7 May, Ambani had said that he would not challenge the verdict of the apex court that gave his brother, Mukesh's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the advantage in the Krishna Godavari Basin Gas row.

Wednesday's meeting also came against the backdrop of Ambani's comments over the weekend that his group respected the Supreme Court judgment, saying it safeguarded the interests of over 2.5 million RNRL shareholders.

"We now look forward to an expeditious and successful re-negotiation with Reliance Industries, within the stipulated period of six weeks, to secure gas supply for the group's power plants in line with the Supreme Court order," he had said.

The 50-year-old industrialist also observed that the petition filed by RNRL was not only held maintainable but orders were also served with the powers to modify the gas supply arrangement with Reliance Industries, and make it workable.

Anil maintained that he was rather looking forward to successful re-negotiation with RIL over the next six weeks as directed by the court.