The cracker at the 230,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery will have an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes.

"We are trying our level best to get the cracker online by March 2022," an industry source familiar with the matter said.

State-run refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Mittal Energy Investments Pvt Ltd own 49% stake each in the project.

Separately, another source said the cracker could start in April. HMEL did not respond to Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Mohi Narayan and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

By Mohi Narayan and Nidhi Verma