The process to revive the sick Ramagundam fertiliser plant in Telangana at an estimated cost of Rs 6,000 crore is underway and it will be commissioned by 2018-19, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar said today.
"The Ramgundam Fertiliser Plant will be commissioned within 36 months. It is being revived at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore. It will have a urea capacity of 13 lakh tonnes, which will be a bonanza for Telangana people and the entire south India," Kumar said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
The project to revive Ramagundam fertilizer unit, located about 240 kms away from Hyderabad, is part of the NDA government's revival plan of Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) closed units. Production of urea and ammonia has been suspended from 1999 due to non-viability of economic operations.
The plant is being revived by a joint venture firm formed by the National Fertiliser Ltd (NFL), Engineering India Ltd (EIL) and FCIL, the Minister said.
NFL would have 25 per cent equity share. The talks are in process with SBI Capital as well as the Telangana government for holding 11 per cent equity each in the JV firm, Kumar said.
Replying to a query raised by Congress member Govardhan Reddy whether the 3,450 former workers would be re-employed once the plant gets revived, the Minister said "The JV that has been formed will take administrative decisions."
Kumar said the revival of this plant would generate more than 4,000 employment opportunities directly and indirectly in the state.
The plant will be based on natural gas as feed stock coming from proposed Mallavaram-Bhilwara pipeline and raw water will be fed from Sripada Yellampally Barrage already built on Godavari river.
Replying to another query on setting up of greenfield and brownfield urea projects, Kumar said the government has recieved six proposals under the new urea investment policy.
Each proposal project would add capacity of at least 1.27 million tonnes per annum, he said, adding that the gas availability will be provided for these projects.
On supply-demand of urea, the Minister said the country's urea production rose to 24.47 million tonnes in 2015-16 from 22.58 million tonnes in the previous year.
Without setting up new plants, the country was able to increase the urea output by 1.9 milion tonnes last year. The supply gap is met through imports.
In 2015-16, 8.47 million tonnes of urea was imported, of which 2 million tonnes was under a long term pact with Oman under a reverse SEZ rule.
"Out of 7-8 million tonnes of urea imported last year. If the urea imported from Oman is taken out from the total imports, the country's reliance on urea imports is reducing in real terms," Kumar said.
The Minister said the government was making efforts to become self-reliant in urea and reduce dependence on imports.
