GOI has set up a committee, headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, to oversee the revival of three urea plants as well as the progress of Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline. The three closed state-run urea plants are in Gorakhpur (UP), Sindri ( Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar). Gas to all these urea plants would be provided at the pooling price from the Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline which requires an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. Each urea plant will require an investment of Rs 6,000 crore. The government has already invited bids for revival of urea plants at Gorakhpur and Sindri.

Other members of the committee are secretaries from departments of fertilisers, petroleum, public enterprises and expenditure.  State-run GAIL is working on to set up about 2000 km Jagdishpur-Phulpur-Haldia pipeline. The revival of these three plants will help in meeting the demand of urea in the North-Eastern states.

Points to Note

• Urea serves an important role in the metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds by animals and is the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine of mammals.
• Urea is widely used in fertilizers as a convenient source of nitrogen. Urea is also an important raw material for the chemical industry.
• The discovery by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828 that urea can be produced from inorganic starting materials was an important conceptual milestone in chemistry.
• Country’s annual requirement of urea is about 30 million tonnes, while the domestic production is stagnant at 22 million tonnes, the rest is met through imports.

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Agriculture Division of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has constituted an Expert Group on Land Leasing. The expert group will be headed by former Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) chairman T Haque.

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