Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri DV Sadananda Gowda has said that NDA Government took various initiatives to boost the fertilizer sector so that an adequate amount of fertilizers could be made available to farmers during the sowing season.
Shri Gowda said that under the provisions of New Investment Policy – 2012 and its amendment in 2014, Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (CFCL) has set up a Brownfield project at Gadepan, Rajasthan with a production capacity of 12.7 LMT Urea per annum. Here the commercial production started on 1st January 2019 which helped in producing 244.55 LMT indigenous urea in the country during 2019-20.
He stated that with a view to becoming self-sufficient in urea production, the government has started reviving the closed fertilizer units of FCIL at Ramagundam, Talcher, Gorakhpur & Sindri and HFCL unit at Barauni. This is a Joint Venture of nominated PSUs to set up gas-based fertilizer plants of 1.27 MMTPA capacity each. The overall progress and likely commissioning of the projects are as under:
Project Overall progress Likely commissioning of the project
Ramagundam 99.58% In pre-commissioning / commissioning stage
Talcher 59.48% By 2023
Gorakhpur 88.10% By 2021
Sindri 77.80% By 2021
Barauni 77.60% By 2021
Union Minister further stated that as per the Modified New Pricing Scheme (NPS-III), all of the Units which are using naphtha as feedstock are to be converted on natural gas. Madras Fertilizers Ltd. has already moved from Naptha feedstock to Natural Gas as feedstock. After getting pipeline connectivity, this unit has started producing Urea w.e.f. 29th July 2019 on natural gas feedstock.
The Minister also said that a major decision was also taken to infuse Rs.900 crore in Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) for its Modernization.
