Government all set to revive three sick FCIL units

Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananthkumar

GOOD news for tens of thousands of employees in the three units of Fertiliser Corporation of India Limited (FCIL). The Moi-led BJP government is working on a package to revive three FCIL units to raise domestic production of urea by 3 million tonnes within 3-4 years. The initial package for the revival package entails around Rs 10,000 crore. The hike in local production will also cut...
down in costs of imports. Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar said his ministry is working on reviving the three closed urea units of Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) in Talcher (Odisha), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Ramagundam ( Telangana).
He said the units at Talcher and Ramgundam, once revived, will raise the domestic production capacity by 3 MT with an estimated investment of around Rs 10,000 crore.
Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar reviewed the progress of the Talcher project on June 10.
"I am confident that in next three to four years closed units at Talcher and Ramgundam will be revived and ready to manufacture urea, whereas for Sindri unit some more groundwork is required," Kumar told reporters in New Delhi after reviewing the work of his ministry.
The country's urea production has stagnated at 22 million tonnes, while current demand is about 30 MT. The shortfall of 8 MT is met through imports.
Both Talcher and Ramagundam plants will be of standard 1.3-1.5 MT size and will be revived by consortium of PSUs.
RCF, Coal India and GAIL are working on to revive the Talcher plant, while Ramagundam plant will be a joint venture between National Fertilisers and EIL.
The government has already started work on reviving Talcher fertiliser plant in Odisha by putting a brand new factory, for which old redundant plant with obsolete machineries is being disposed off, the Fertilizer Ministry said.
"Since the Government of India has planned to set up a new Urea Plant with higher capacity, the old redundant plant with obsolete machineries need to be dismantled for making space for the new plant" the ministry said in a statement.
The old equipment, plant and machinery cannot be used in the new unit and is worth only scrap. This scrap is being sold to make way for setting up of a new plant.
Fertilizer Ministry elaborated that two PSUs Metals Scrap Trading Corporation ( MSTC) and Projects Development India Limited (PDIL) were entrusted with task of sale of unusable items and machineries through e-auction.
"E-auction was held in March this year, subsequently re-auction was held on May 9, as the highest bid received in the first auction was low. In the re-auction, FCIL fetched Rs 112 crore against the reserve price of Rs 85 crore," the statement added.
Consortium of PSUs including Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF), Coal India Limited (CIL), Gas Authority of India Limited ( GAIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL), are working on the project, it added.
RCF has already carried out geo-technical and topography survey of the project site. The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the project has been approved by Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) and EIA/EMP studies for obtaining environment clearance are in progress.
Joint Venture Companies are being formed for putting up the new Coal-based Fertilizer Plant with a capacity of 11.5 lakh tonnes of Urea and 3.3 lakh tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate.
"State Government of Odisha has since provided 'Comfort Letter' in support of the revival of the Talcher Unit," the statement said.
As many as 8 state-owned fertiliser manufacturing units - 5 of FCIL and 3 of Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd - are closed with combined asset value of about Rs 5,600 crore.