RCF plans to set up Rs 2000 cr plant

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in a new ammonia plant. The company is also investing Rs 400 crore and Rs 200 crore at its Trombay and Thal units, respectively.

The Rs 2,000 crore plant is for the Thal 3 project, which would increase the ammonia capacity of the company by one million tonne. "We have sent a proposal to the government to put up a new 1 million tonne ammonia plant at Thal," said U S Jha, managing director on the sidelines of a news conference here. He said the project in Thal in the western state of Maharashtra would take three years to complete, once started.

The Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan, who flagged off Rs 50 crore investment on the company's new nitric acid plant said owing to plant closure at Trombay, the company was expecting its net profit for the current year to decline to Rs 100 crore as against Rs 141 crore last year.

The entire cost would be met through debt for which several banks have approached us and once permission is granted to us, we would go ahead with loan procedures, said Jha.

It was due to the non-availability of gas that the two small units at Trombay were closed down. Thus urea and complexes production are expected to come down by 50,000 tonne each this year, Paswan said.

But, the minister added that the Trombay plant would be started again once gas supplies resume either from Dahej or overseas.

"We produced 205 lakh tonne urea last year therefore, we are self sufficient in urea. We are importing di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and potash. Our oman plant is producing 16.5 lakh tonne of urea which is cost affective satisfactory," said Paswan.