| Date: |
22-05-2015 |
| Subject: |
Govt to invest Rs 10,500 cr in urea plants to lower imports |
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In its continuing effort to boost domestic production and scale down imports, the NDA government will invest Rs 10,500 crore to revive urea plant at Sindri and set up a new fertiliser plant at Namrup.
The Sindri plant in Jharkhand with a capacity of 1.3 million tonne, which closed in 2002, would be revived with an investment of Rs 6,000 crore. The Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers plant in Assam would require an investment of Rs 4,500 crore. The Namrup plant will have an annual capacity of 8.64 lakh tonne of urea.
The Union cabinet at a meeting chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi decided on Thursday to make these crucial investments to push up domestic urea output and reduce dependence on imports.
The cabinet also approved financial restructuring of the Brahmaputra Valley Fertiliser Corporation by waiving the entire cumulative interest Rs 774.61 crore as on March 31, an official statement said.
This is the third major decision taken by the Modi government to improve urea output and make available cost-effective farm nutrients to farmers in the country.
Earlier, the government had decided to provide gas to 20 urea plants at pooled prices and also revive two urea plants in West Bengal and Bihar.
The Namrup plant will be revived through a three-way joint venture with Brahmaputra Valley Corporation, Assam government and the centre holding 11 per cent stake each. While state-run Oil India would own 26 per cent share, the rest would be offered to private partners through a global bid.
Sindri unit was the first PSU in independent India. The government has taken a decision to revive Sindri through the bidding route.
“The government is also reviving Gorakhpur, Barauni, Talcher fertiliser plants along with Sindri and setting new up plant at Namrup. Together, the revival of these plants would add fresh capacities worth nearly 73 lakh tonne of urea,” fertiliser minister Anant Kumar told newsmen after a meeting of the Union cabinet.
Eastern and north-eastern Indian states have projected a demand of about 50 lakh tonne of urea and the latest decisions would help make the region self reliant in terms of nitrogenous fertilisers.
Once all these capacities come up government will be in a position to supply urea to Nepal and Bangladesh. Against an annual demand of 31 million tonne urea, domestic output is 23 million tonne while the rest is being imported.
Source : mydigitalfc.com
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