RCF to invite bids for Rs 4,500-cr Thal plant expansion

State-run Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) will soon invite bids for its proposed Rs 4,500-crore urea capacity expansion at its Thal plant near Mumbai, a top company official said.
"We are getting the bids and the lump sum turn-key bids. We will soon invite bids, which will be followed by a detailed project report. Next year, I think we can start the project," RCF chairman and managing director RG Rajan told PTI here.
The Mini-Ratna company, which has said that it will be raising fertiliser prices by 2-3 per cent to offset the natural gas price hike impact on margins from this month, is going to set up a new urea capacity at its Thal plant near Mumbai with an estimated investment of Rs 4,500 crore.

"We expect the EPC job to be awarded sometime in 2015, so the plant could be commissioned by 2018," he said.
RCF, along with Coal India, GAIL and Fertiliser Corporation of India, is setting up Rs 9,000-crore facility at Talcher in Odisha and Rajan said the plant is likely to be commissioned in 2019.
The Talcher plant is a coal-gas fired one and was originally owned by FCI. Apart from producing 1.3 million tonne urea, the plant will also produce 3.5 lakh tonne ammonium nitrate post expansion by 2019, he said.
Rajan said out of the Rs 9,000-crore total investment, RCF would be investing Rs 1,000 crore. RCF has annual capacity of 2.5 mt urea and 7 lakh tonne complex fertilisers.