Cabinet nod for new urea complex in Assam, reviving Jharkhand unit

To meet the growing demand of urea in India's eastern regions, the union cabinet on Thursday approved setting up of an ammonia-urea complex of 8.64 lakh tonne annual capacity at an investment of Rs.4,500 crore at Assam's Namrup, as well as restarting a closed unit in Jharkhand.

"In the proposed joint venture (JV), the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd (BVFCL), government of Assam and Oil India Ltd shall have 11 percent, 11 percent and 26 percent equity holding respectively and balance 52 percent by private/public sector entity (ies) which would be inducted through a competitive bidding process," a cabinet communique said here.

"The setting up of a new ammonia-urea complex will meet the growing demand of urea of northeast (states), Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand," it added.

To enable the state-run BVFCL to participate as equity partner in this project, "the cabinet also approved the company's financial restructuring by waiving off the entire cumulative interest (Rs.774.61 crore as on 31.03.2015) till date accrued on government of India (GOI) loans, and a loan of Rs.21.96 crore and conversion of GOI loans of Rs.594.71 crore as interest-free loan," the statement said.

In a separate decision to benefit the region, the cabinet approved reviving of the closed urea unit of the Fertilizer Corporation of India at Sindri in Jharkhand with an investment of Rs.6,000 crore through the bidding route

"This unit was lying defunct and was not in operation since 2002. It is important to mention here that there is no functional urea unit in the eastern part of the country except two small units at Namrup (Assam)," the release said.

"To enhance the production of urea, the government has earlier approved the revival of Talcher (Odisha) and Ramagundam (Telangana) units of FCIL by public sector undertakings through 'nomination route' and the Barauni unit of Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation and Gorakhpur unit of FCIL through 'bidding route'," it added.

As per the government, the annual consumption of urea in the country is around 310 lakh tonnes, of which 230 lakh tonnes is produced indigenously and rest is imported.

--Indo-Asian News service

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