Government to form 2 JVs for Talcher and Ramagundam fertiliser plants

The Government is reportedly planning to set up two joint ventures to revive fertiliser plants at Talcher in Odisha and at Ramagundam in Telangana. “Government proposes to from two joint ventures for the revival of closed fertilisers plants at Talcher in Odisha and at Ramagundam in Telangana,” said Ananth Kumar, Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers, after a meeting with Dharmendra Pradhan, MOS (Independent Charge) Petroleum. The meeting was also attended by Secretary in the Ministry of Coal, CMD of Coal India Limited, Secretary Department Fertilisers Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, and other officials of the ministry.
 
Both these projects have suspended their production since April 1999 due to non-viability for economic operations. While the plants were set up to take advantage of abundance of coal availability in these areas, in the new revival scheme the Talcher and Ramagundam plants will use gas to run their operation. Ananth Kumar said that an investment of about Rs 9,000 crores is proposed to be made towards these projects. Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), Gail, Coal India, and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL) will form the joint ventures. At Talcher plans are to set up an upstream coal gasification unit and a urea-cum-ammonia nitrate complex.
 
Ananth Kumar said that development and extension of Jagdishpur-Haldia natural gas pipeline in the northern and eastern regions and Dhabol-Bangalore pipeline in the southern region are expected to give a fillip to fertiliser plants and other industries along their way. In fact, there were also plans to set up 2-3 fertiliser plants near the Jagdispur-Haldia gas pipeline.