Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Talcher in Orissa on February 14 to revive a plant of Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCIL) which was closed 15 years ago after incurring heavy losses.
The revival plan, being worked out by the chemical and fertiliser ministry under Srikant Jena, a local Member of Parliament, entails an investment of Rs 8,000 crore. It is expected to create direct and indirect employment for around 25,000 people.
A consortium of four state-run companies ? Coal India (CIL), GAIL India, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) and FCIL ? will work towards the revival via two joint venture entities.
The first JV will be between GAIL, CIL, and RCF with GAIL holding 50% partnership, while CIL’s share will be 35%. RCF will hold a 15% share in the proposed JV, which will act as upstream coal gassification and gas purification unit.
Under the second JV, a downstream urea and ammonium nitrate plant will be set up. CIL and RCF each will hold a 40% stake, while the balance will be with FCIL.
The project is expected to get commissioned by 2017.
The revival project is being set up on coal gassification for production of 1.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) of urea and ammonium nitrate.
CIL will supply 5 mtpa coal for this project. The ammonia-urea project will depend on ammonia synthesis gas from the coal gassification plant.
The Talcher unit started production in 1980 and used to produce 600-700 metric tonne of urea.
But during the 1990s, the plant started incurring heavy losses and the accumulated losses were estimated to be nearly Rs 1,000 crore, which resulted in its shutdown in April 1999 when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre.
The revival of the closed fertiliser unit was expected to bridge the gap and reduce the country’s import dependence.
India produces about 22 million tonne of urea and imports around 8 million tonne to meet the shortfall.
Industry experts believe that since there are no fertilizer units in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal, revival of the closed unit will ensure availability of fertilizer to the consumption centres contributing to agricultural development in these areas.
