MUMBAI: Shirshendu Banerjee has joined Essel Infraprojects Limited as the Chief Operating Officer for the Essel group's FM radio vertical.

Banerjee, better known as Shandy in media circles, was head of the Radio division at Mediaguru in his last assignment. Having started as an on air talent with All India Radio, Banerjee has also held charge as head of programming for Red FM Delhi. Essel currently has licenses to run FM stations in Punjab (Amritsar and Patiala), Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Benaras and Allahabad) and Maharashtra (Jalgaon, Nanded and Akola). Banerjee's initial mandate is to set up these stations. He says the stations are likely to be operational by the end of May.