The $8.48 billion bid of Vedanta a major chunk of stake in Cairn India is now expected to be contended by a combined bid by government owned ONGC, GAIL and OIL who have reportedly assembled an amount of $10 billion from various international financial institutions for this purpose.

The oil ministry is on a look out for a legal alternative by which it can prevent the finalization of the deal between the London-listed mining group Vedanta with UK based Cairn Energy Plc. which owns about 62.37 % stake in Cairn India.

At the same time in order to get rid of its uneasiness over Vedanta signing the deal for the simple reason that the latter is not an oil company, the Ministry of Oil has proposed ONGC, Gail and OIL to bid for a joint stake in Cairn India.

The three have had a few casual discussions wherein ONGC has come up as the spearhead of the conglomerate with a stake of 50% while GAIL and OIL have agreed to 20-25 % each.