PSUs to form 2 JVs for revival of Talcher fert plant: Minister

State-owned companies like RCF and GAIL will form two joint ventures to revive the closed urea plant at Talcher in Odisha with an estimated investment of Rs 9,000 crore, Fertliser Minister Ananath Kumar said today.
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), Coal India, GAIL and Fertilizer Corporation of India will form the joint ventures.
The first joint venture (JV) will be for setting up of an upstream coal gasification unit and the second JV is for an urea-cum-ammonia nitrate complex.
Talcher will be the first plant in the country using coal gasification technology.
"The plant will have a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum of urea and 3.3 lakh litres of ammonia nitrate per annum and around Rs 9,000 crore will be invested in this project with an aim of generating employment," Kumar told reporters here.

He added that signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between PSUs will be held before November.

The Minister was speaking after the meeting with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Secretary, Fertilisers, J K Mohapatra.
Pradhan said: "With setting up of this plant our aim is to generate employment opportunities in North-Eastern parts of of the country."
This is perhaps the first greenfield plant in the fertiliser sector in almost in the last 10 years.
Kumar said the work is also going on to revive the Ramagundam fertiliser plant. There are also plans to set up 2-3 fertiliser plants near Jagdispur-Haldia gas pipeline.

The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had de-registered Fertiliser Corporation on June 27, 2013, thus paving the way for revival of its closed urea plants. This happened after the government had approved the proposal to revive five closed units of FCIL at Sindri, Talcher, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur and Korba.
The government had also approved waiving loan and interest amounting to Rs 10,644 crore to Fertliser Corporation last year.
Meanwhile, sources said the old equipment, plant and machinery cannot be used in the new unit and is worth only scrap. This scrap is being sold to make way for setting up of a new plant.