Snamprogetti, Casale In Race For Nfl Project

Urea Casale of Switzerland and Snamprogetti of Italy have emerged as the frontrunners for the National Fertiliser Limiteds (NFL) Rs 100 crore Nangal urea expansion project.

It is proposed to increase the urea capacity of the Nangal plant from 1,000 tonnes per day to 1,650 tonnes per day. Three companies had bid for the revised project in October. However, the bid of Urea Technologies of the USA was rejected since the company had put in only a tentative proposal. It had said that the price is negotiable. This is the second time that bids have been invited for the expansion. Earlier, when bids for the project were invited in 1995, the project had been awarded to Urea Casale. However, Urea Casale had opted out of the project over differences regarding prilling towers specifications.

NFL had, at that time, unsuccessfully tried to encash the bank guarantee provided by the company. NFL revised the project specifications and included the building of a new prilling tower and increase in the carbon dioxide capacity in the project proposal. It has accordingly decided to provide an extension for the project.

The government is keen to reverse the declining trend in domestic urea production. Production of nitrogen declined from 8.77 million tonnes during 1995-96 to 8.59 million tonnes during 1996-97, despite the full years contribution from Oswal Chemicals and Fertilisers plant at Shahjahanpur , which was commissioned in November 1995.