The Cabinet approved the revival of these three closed fertiliser units, with a capacity of 1.27 million tonnes per annum each at an estimated cost of Rs 18,000 crore to make India self-sufficient in urea output.
The three fertilizers units are:
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Barauni unit of Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation Limited (HFCL).
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Urea unit of Fertilizer Corporation India Limited (FCIL) at Sindri (Jharkhand).
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Urea unit of FCIL at Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh).
Key point
- The setting up of new units at Sindri, Gorakhpur and Barauni will meet the growing demand of urea of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
- These three fertilizers units would be revived by means of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Public Sector Units (PSUs) namely, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Coal India Limited (CIL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and FCIL/HFCL, through ‘nomination route.
- It will ease the pressure on railway and road infrastructure due to long distance transportation of urea from Western and Central Regions and thereby saving in Govt.
- It will also accelerate the economic development of the region. Apart from growth of regional economy, this unit will create opportunities for 1200 direct and 4500 indirect employments.
- GAIL (India) has planned to lay a gas pipeline from Jagdishpur to Haldia. These units will serve as anchor customer for this pipeline and ensure its viability. Commissioning Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline (JHPL) is important for development of critical infrastructure in Eastern India and will have multiplier effect on economic growth of the region.
- The annual consumption of urea in the country is approximately 320 lakh tonnes, out of which 245 lakh tonnes are produced indigenously and rest is imported.
To enhance the production of urea indigenously, Govt. had earlier also approved the revival of Talcher (Odisha) & Ramagundam (Telangana) units of FCIL by PSUs through ‘nomination route’.
