Rs 50,000 cr plan to revive shut fertiliser plants, build new gas pipelines

Once running, these units will make India self-sufficient in urea by 2020-21

The Central government and cash-rich coal, power and oil PSUs will jointly invest over Rs 50,000 crore to revive closed fertiliser plants and set up new gas pipelines, in a move aimed at making India self-sufficient in urea by 2020-21 and negating the need for imports.

Briefing reporters after a mid-course assessment on revival of closed plants in India, fertiliser minister Ananth Kumar said as and when all the five closed fertiliser units start full-fledged operations, India's annual domestic urea production would rise to about 7.3 million tonnes, and help meet the demand of 31-32 million tonnes.

Besides investing in rebuilding the shut urea plants at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Sindri in Jharkhand, Talcher in Odisha and Barauni in Bihar, about Rs 13,000 crore is being invested in laying a gas pipeline to connect the eastern region with rest of the country.

Another Rs 6,000-8,000 crore is being invested in setting up a terminal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Dhamra in Odisha, taking the total investment to Rs 50,000 crore, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also present during the meeting, said.

"India's annual requirement of urea is 31-32 million tonnes. In the fiscal year that ended on March 31 (2016-17), domestic production was 24.5 million tonnes and the rest was imported," Ananth Kumar said.

Revival of the fertiliser units will boost productivity of agriculture, which account for about 15 per cent of India's $2.11 trillion economy and employ three-fifths of its 1.3 billion people.

Oil Minister Pradhan said physical work on four fertiliser plants in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha will start this year and production will start in 2020-21.

Work on Ramagundam unit has already started and is expected to be completed by end-2018, he said.

The fertiliser plants are being revived with the help of state-run power producer NTPC Ltd, miner Coal India Ltd, oil refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and gas utility GAIL India Ltd who have taken equity stake in the plants.

In view of the continuous losses of Fertiliser Corp of India Ltd's (FCIL) units at Talcher, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur, Sindri, and Korba in Chhattisgarh were shut down in 2002 during the previous NDA rule.

Similarly, Hindustan Fertiliser Corp Ltd's (HFCL) Barauni and Durgapur, and Haldia units in West Bengal were shut.

While revival of Korba unit is to be taken up later, FCIL's Sindri and Gorakhpur, and HFCL's Barauni plants will be connected to the 2,650-km pipeline, which GAIL is laying from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal to supply feedstock natural gas.

Durgapur and Haldia units are being revived through 'bidding route'.

Pradhan said the Talcher plant will be revived through coal- gasification process.

"About 2.5-kilometre of gas pipeline per day is being laid," he said.

In Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni plants, NTPC, Coal India and IOC will take stake along with FCIL/HFCL.

In Ramagundam, Engineers India Ltd, National Fertiliser Ltd (NFL) and FCIL have formed a joint venture.