Urea self-sufficiency by FY21: Govt

Centre, PSUs will invest Rs 50,000 cr to revive closed fertiliser units, set up more gas pipelines

The central government, with cash-rich coal, power and oil public sector units, will jointly invest around Rs 50,000 crore to revive closed fertiliser plants and set up new gas pipelines. All of which would make India self-sufficient in urea by 2020-21. Production was 24.5 mt in 2016-17.

Briefing reporters after a mid-course assessment on revival of closed fertiliser plants, Union minister Ananth Kumar said as and when all five closed units start full-fledged operation, annual domestic urea production would rise to 7.3 million tonnes, thereby meeting the demand of 31-32 mt.

Beside 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 the rest of the country.

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

Revival of the fertiliser units will boost productivity of agriculture, which accounts for about 15 per cent of India's $2.1-trillion economy and employs three-fifths of its people.

Pradhan said work on four fertiliser plants in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha will start this year, and production in 2020-21. Work on the Ramagundam unit in Telangana has started and is expected to be complete by end-2018.

The plants are being revived with state-run power producer NTPC, Coal India, Indian Oil Corporation and gas utility GAIL India, which have taken equity stakes.

After continuous losses, Fertiliser Corporation of India's (FCI's) units at Talcher, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur, Sindri and Korba in Chhattisgarh were shut down in 2002. Similarly, Hindustan Fertiliser Corp's (HFC's) Barauni, Durgapur and Haldia units in West Bengal were shut.

Revival of the Korba unit is to be taken later. FCI's Sindri and Gorakhpur, and HFC's Barauni plants will be connected to the 2,650-km pipeline GAIL is laying from Jagdishpur in UP to Haldia, to supply gas as feedstock. The Durgapur and Haldia units are being revived through a bidding route. Pradhan said Talcher would be revived through coal gasification. "About 2.5k km of gas pipeline per day is being laid," he said.

At the Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni units, NTPC, Coal India and IOC will take stakes along with FCI and HFC. At Ramagundam, Engineers India, National Fertiliser and FCI have formed a joint venture.