Essar Group Co-Founder Shashi Ruia Dies At 80

New Delhi: Shashikant Ruia, a first-generation entrepreneur who turned a small construction business into an infrastructure conglomerate, died after a prolonged illness. He was 80.

Shashi Ruia, as he was fondly called, co-founded the metals-to-technology conglomerate Essar with his brother Ravi. Ruia, who would have turned 81 next month, died in Mumbai around midnight. He had returned from the US, where he was undergoing treatment, about a month back. “It is with profound grief that we inform of the passing of Shri Shashikant Ruia, Patriarch of the Ruia and Essar Family,” the Ruia family said in a statement.

He is survived by his wife Manju and two sons Prashant and Anshuman. Starting his career in 1965 under the guidance of his father Nand Kishore Ruia, Shashi and his brother Ravi laid the foundation of Essar in 1969 when they bagged a Rs 2.5 crore order from the Madras Port Trust for the construction of an outer breakwater in the port.

In the early years, Essar focused on construction and engineering projects and built a number of bridges, dams and power plants. In the 1980s, Essar diversified into the energy sector with the acquisition of oil and gas assets.