Chairman & Nominee Director

Mr. Singhal, Director (BD), GAIL, is an Electronics and Communication Engineer from IIT BHU Varanasi with Diploma in Business and Finance-ICFAI. He joined GAIL in 1989 and has spent more than 3 decades at GAIL in various profiles. He has gained extensive exposure in operation & maintenance of natural gas installations, SCADA / Telecom, LNG Sourcing, Trading, Shipping, Marketing and Business Development activities covering Merger & Acquisition, Diversification, Renewables / Green Hydrogen, etc.

Presently as Director (Business Development), he is responsible for building GAIL’s Business Portfolio in India and abroad, Merger and Acquisition, Petrochemical O&M and Expansion, Exploration & Production, Research & Development, Start–Up, Health Safety & Environment management, Quality Management and Project Development.

A few of his notable achievements have been marketing of US LNG to 6 fertiliser plants under long term contract, renegotiation of LNG sourcing contracts from Qatar and Russia, acquisition of JBF Petrochemical Limited, setting up of India’s first Small Scale LNG project and acquisition of 26% stake in Japonica, an LNG vessel company.

Managing Director

Kumar Shanker is currently the Managing Director of Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL), which is a City Gas Distribution (CGD) Company in India that is jointly promoted by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and GAIL (India) Limited.

He is a Chemical Engineer from B.I.T.S. Pilani with more than 31 years of rich and diverse experience in the natural gas industry encompassing Commissioning and Operations of Gas Processing Plants, Project Management of Petrochemical Units, Corporate Strategy & Planning, Marketing & Regulatory functions, and CGD sector.

At present, under his leadership, MNGL has grown from strength to strength, and today MNGL is amongst the top five CGD companies in India in terms of growth, profitability, and development of infrastructure for domestic piped gas connections.

Earlier, over a period of three decades, he has worked in various business verticals of GAIL covering several locations in India including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi.

He has extensive experience in Regulatory matters across a wide spectrum of areas related to grant of authorizations, open access, pipeline tariffs, affiliate-code of conduct etc.

He has been actively engaged in several important policy and regulatory changes that have evolved over the past two decades in the Indian natural gas sector.

He has made important presentations on various policy and regulatory matters to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, NITI Aayog and the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), and they have all been well received for its thoughts and ideas. He has played an important role in the introduction of Unified Tariff for the National Gas Grid System in the country which is hailed as a noteworthy reform in the natural gas sector in India.

In GAIL, he was instrumental in launching a pioneering initiative of On-line Pipeline Open Access Portal which provides a real-time single-window platform for smooth and easy booking of common carrier capacity in all GAIL’s gas pipelines.

He was also a co-chair of a sub-committee on Low Emissions Gas Task Force formed under the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership.

Director (Commercial)

Maj Shankar Karajagi  has taken charge of Director Commercial  on the Board of MNGL w.e.f. 1st August 2024.

He is a multi façade, multi talented  personality who not only has a vast and vivid  experience & knowledge of Oil and Gas Industry but has served in India Army as Major in 414 ASC Bn Mktg TA for 14 years, and  has also  brought laurels to the Nation by winning  the  IRONMAN title which is the worlds toughest one day  endurance sports.

He is a Mechanical  Engineer from N.I.T.K Surthakal, has done his  MBA  from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research Mumbai , has done  a PGD in Technology Mgmnt. in Agriculture  from NAARM Hyderabad University and a few certificate courses. He  has behind  him  33  years of rich and diverse experience in the Oil and Natural Gas Sector encompassing Retail, Industrial and commercial Sales & Marketing, Network expansion, Retail Engineering & Automation, New Product Development, Non Fuel Business Development, Channel Partner Management, POL Operations etc. He also has penned two books called “The Marketing Insights for I&C Soldiers” and  “Ready Reckoner of Natural Gas”

He has a comprehensive and extensive experience in Sales and Marketing of Oil & Gas Retail, I&C, Natural Gas and Non Fuel Business.  He lead  the front end field force in  developing a new product called Pharma Hexane in BPCL when he was posted as Head AP&TS in Hyderabad during 2015-18 replacing 100 % imports.. He has many National and Corporate  awards  to his credit  on Innovation ,Ideas and performance. To name a few  are National Petroleum Innovation Award 2020-21 by MOPNG, BPCL  Chairman’s Best Idea Award 2017, etc.    

He has worked in vivid business verticals of BPCL covering different locations of India via Chennai, Mumbai , Gujarat, Pune, Nagpur, Delhi, Hyderabad and  Bengalore. During his 14 years of Army assignments  worked in different locations across India and has under his sleeves many medals of  Marathons, Duathlons, Triathlons participated within & Outside  India. He believes in simplicity and service to Nation and  passion, discipline, integrity and good health  as the corner stones for success and happiness in life.  

Nominee Director

Mr. Kamal Kishore Chatiwal is the Managing Director of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), the largest CNG distribution company of the country. Prior to joining IGL, he was Executive Director (O&M, LPG Pipeline) & Zonal ED, Jaipu.

He is an alumni of the prestigious IIT Delhi and has a rich domain experience of over 32 years in Oil & Gas Sector particularly in Project Execution and Commissioning of Mega Petrochemical Projects, Operation & Maintenance of Gas Processing units, Natural Gas Compressor Station and Cross-country LPG Pipeline.

 His expertise also extends to preparation of DFR/scheme for pipeline project, last mile connectivity, production of Green Hydrogen, ammonia, specialty chemicals and renewables.

 He has been actively involved in conceptualization, approval and licensor selection process of India’s 1st Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) unit and also Polypropylene (PP) plant at GAIL-USAR.

Nominee Director

Mr. Mohit Bhatia is presently working as Director (Commercial) in Indraprastha Gas Ltd. (IGL), the largest CNG distribution Company of the country.  IGL is a joint venture of GAIL (I) Ltd. and BPCL along with Govt. of NCT of Delhi. He was serving as Chief Executive Officer of Haridwar Natural Gas, a joint venture of BPCL with Gail Gas, at Haridwar before joining the current assignment. He has been in leadership roles like State Retail Head of Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir and Territory Manager of LPG in New Mumbai.  In course of his career in BPCL, Mr. Bhatia has overseen as well as executed sales and marketing activities to deliver an enormous increase in the sales of oil, LPG as well as Natural Gas.

Mr. Bhatia possesses a degree in Civil Engineering from NIT, Suratkhal, Karnataka and an MBA in Marketing from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai. He is a result oriented & experienced senior leader having over 31 years of experience in the oil & gas sector in the areas of Operations, Engineering and Marketing subsequent to joining BPCL in 1993.

Independent Director

Mrs. Bageshree M. Manthalkar is an Independent Woman Director appointed on the Board of Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd. (MNGL) w.e.f. 19th March 2021. She is having a wide experience in social work as she is an active social worker for last 3 decades. she has been primarily working in the field of academic betterment of weaker sections of society, through NGOs such as Swa-Roop-Wardhini and Surajya Sarvangin Vikas Prakalpa. Her focus area was betterment of women from low earning groups and children in slums with academic spark. She is also an elected Senate Member of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra from Graduate Constituency. Mrs. Manthalkar is a commerce graduate and holds a law degree (LLB) from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune.

She is also an experienced retailer from her petrochemical retail product’s business.