Anil Ambani calls on PM; brothers to meet?

Billionaire Anil Ambani on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at 7 Race Course Road for close to an hour but refused comments on the purpose of his meeting.

The meeting comes within days of the Supreme Court rejecting his group firm Reliance Natural Resources Ltd's plea for cheap gas from Reliance Industries as had been decided in a private family agreement of 2005.

The buzz is that the country's political leadership might make an effort to effect an amicable settlement between the two warring brothers, although this could not be confirmed. On Friday last, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani's lawyer Harish Salve had said that the elder brother (Mukesh) and his wife hoped the ruling would be a 'healing touch' to end the bitter family dispute.

Normally, Wednesdays are fixed for Anil Ambani to visit the corridors of power in New Delhi. Senior functionaries of two Ambani groups will soon work out the implementation of the ruling of the Apex Court.

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Additional inputs: PTI

A view in the corridors of power is that by this weekend there could be a meeting between the officials of the Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani groups. This, it is learnt, would set the stage for a meeting between the brothers.

Leaders of United Progressive Alliance are keen to bring an end to the differences between the Ambani brothers.

The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group chairman, who earlier in the day had an hour long meeting the prime minister's private secretary T K A Nair, did not take questions from media on the purpose of the visit.

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The Apex Court had on May 7 ruled that the government is the owner of all gas until delivery to the consumers and had the right to fix its price and users.

Reliance Natural Resources Ltd was seeking supply of 28 million cubic meters per day of gas for 17 years at a price of $2.34 per million British thermal unit for the Group's greenfield power plant at Dadri near Delhi, as opposed to the government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu.

As per the Supreme Court verdict, RNRL can only get gas in future based on government allocation and pricing. While the court has asked RIL and RNRL to renegotiate the gas supply master agreement (GSMA) in 6 weeks, the provisions of any such agreement are to be in line with the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and the ambit of government policy.