Construction work on Rs 8,000 cr Talcher unit from next Oct

Construction work on the much-delayed Rs 8,000-crore Talcher urea unit revival project, in which Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) will have a majority stake, is set to start from next October.

"We had a meeting with the stakeholders and they agreed to revive the Talcher project last week. The broad schedule, including October 2011 as the dateline for the start of construction work, has been drawn at the meeting," Minister of State for Chemical and Fertiliser Srikant Jena told PTI.

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, Coal India and Gas Authority of India had earlier agreed to jointly take up the project, at an approximate investment of Rs 8,000 crore, using coal-based gas technology.

Jena said a global tender inviting bids from interested parties would be floated soon for supplying the coal-based gas technology.

A delegation comprising government and industry officials had earlier visited China, globally known for this technology, to assess the feasibility of the revival project. Impressed wih the technology, the delegation felt that the same could be replicated for the revival of the Talcher unit as well.

China has a globally-recognised coal-based gas technology and almost 76 per cent of urea and ammonia units in China are fired through gas-produced using that technology.

Asked about the probable stakeholding pattern in the project, Jena said that RCF would have majority stake in the venture though the details would be worked out in a few months.

Production at Talcher, owned by the erstwhile Fertiliser Corporation of India, was terminated in 1999 by the NDA government because of low production efficiency.

Talk of a revival started when the UPA government decided to reopen all the closed urea units in the country, including the Talcher facility.

Upon revival, the capacity of the Talcher unit will also be increased to 11 lakh tonnes per annum. The revival of the unit will reduce the subsidy burden on the government on urea imports.

India imported more than 116 lakh tonnes of fertiliser to meet its domestic need for the current kharif season, which includes 30 lakh tonnes of urea.