Government has floated a global tender inviting investors to revive the closed urea plant at Sindri in Jharkhand at an estimated investment of Rs 6,000 crore.
In May, the Cabinet had approved the revival of closed urea plant at Sindri to boost domestic production and cut dependence on imports.
The project will be awarded through the bidding process and the selected investor will have to setup, design, finance, construct, establish, operate and maintain a gas-based 1.27 million tonnes urea plant for a term of 33 years, Fertiliser Ministry said in a tender document.
The tender estimates the investment of Rs 6,000 crore.
"In North-eastern states there is hardly one or two urea plants so we are expecting good response on this tender. And government will purchase the urea manufactured from this plant and will also provide the gas at the pooled price," a senior government official told PTI.
The project has to be completed within three years.
Of the total land area of 6,653 acres available with the Fertiliser Corporation of India at Sindri, a requisite area of land will be made available to the selected bidder.
The land is available at very prime location near Damodar river, so therefore there will not be any shortage of water, the official added.
Deloite Touche Tohmatsu India has been appointed as the advisor to assist in the bidding process.
Prior to making an application, the bidder has to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh as the cost of the RFQ (request for qualification) process. And only those players can apply who have net worth of at least Rs 1,000 crore in last three preceding financial years.
The natural gas for the project is proposed to be transported through the upcoming Jagdishpur-Phulpur-Haldia pipeline to be constructed by GAIL India.
The government is also working on to develop a single window mechanism for all clearances to this projects, the official said.
At present, the annual domestic demand of urea is about 31 million tonnes while the production is only 23 million tonnes. India imports about 7-8 million tonnes of urea every year to meet the shortfall.
