With the aim of making India self-sufficient in urea production, the Fertiliser Ministry has approved proposals for investment of about Rs 10,000 crore to revive the state-owned closed urea plants.
Besides, the government is working on setting up a new urea-ammonia plant at state-run Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation's (BVFCL) existing facility in Assam and plans for reviving another closed plant in Sindri are also in advanced stages.
"In last 100 days, we have approved proposals for reviving the closed urea plants in Talcher and Ramamgundam with investment of about Rs 10,000 crore, while the plans for reviving the Sindri plant are in advanced stages," Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar told PTI.
This approval, could be the first major investment in the fertiliser sector in almost last decade or so, as during this period no new fertiliser plant has been set up in the country.
The minister added that Fertilizer Ministry has already held two rounds of meetings with the Petroleum Ministry on the issue of Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline.
"... To realise the grand vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to generate employment for our youth, I have already held two rounds of meetings with Petroleum Minister on the issue of Jagdispur-Haldia gas pipeline," Kumar said.
Emphasising that once this gas pipeline gets operational, Kumar said there will be enormous employment and business opportunities in hindi heartland comprising states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"Urea units in Gorakhpur, Haldia, Barauni, Durgapur can also be revived as gas is the feedstock required for the production of urea. And one can easily imagine there will be plenty of employment opportunities in these regions," the minister underlined.
At present, state-owned eight fertiliser plants are closed, out of which three closed units of Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd (HFCLl) are at Barauni, Durgapur and Haldia. Remaining five are of Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) at Sindri, Ramagundam, Talcher, Gorakhpur and Korba.
Fertilizer Ministry is also taking initiatives for approval of new efficient plant of capacity 8.64 lakh metric tonnes per annum (LMPA) for BVFCL in Assam.
With the new plant, the Ministry aims to achieve higher production from the same 1.72 mmscmd quantity of gas from Oil India Limited (OIL), from which now only 3.5 lakh million tonnes are being produced.
