Centre gives nod to gas-based fertiliser plant at Ramagundam

The Government of India has agreed in principle, to establish a state-of-the-art natural gas-based fertiliser plant at Ramagundam in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore.
The Centre also agreed to initiate action to revive the Fertiliser Corporation of India's (FCI) now-defunct unit at Ramagundam by deleting it from the sick industries list notified by the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), a press release from the Chief Minister's Office said.
The BIFR declared the FCI's coal-based fertiliser plant a sick unit way back in 1992.
At the time of its closure, the unit employed 1500 people and produced 1500 tonnes of urea per day.

On a plea made by Karimnagar's elected representatives, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy recently requested the Centre to lay a natural gas pipeline from the Krishna-Godavari basin to Gujarat through Karimnagar, to ensure gas supplies to the proposed fertiliser plant.
The proposed gas-based fertiliser plant will be established jointly by National Fertilisers Ltd, Engineers India Ltd and the FCI, the release said.
However, no other details were disclosed.