Govt to invest Rs 10,500 cr on urea plants in Jharkhand, Assam

New Delhi: The cabinet today approved revival of closed urea plant in Sindri, Jharkhand, and setting up of a new fertiliser plant in Namrup in Assam at a total investment of Rs 10,500 crore.[caption id=“attachment_1985291” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Making urea available in abundance. Reuters[/caption] The 1.3 million tonnes (MT) plant at Sindri will be revived at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, while Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer’s plant in Assam entails an investment of Rs 4,500 crore, Union Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the cabinet meeting. The Namrup plant will have an annual capacity of 8.64 lakh tonnes of urea. The cabinet also approved financial restructuring of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation by waiving the entire cumulative interest Rs 774.61 crore as on 31 March, the fertiliser ministry said in a statement. “Namrup plant will be a joint venture between Brahmaputra Valley having 11 percent share,government of Assam having 11 percent share and Oil India having 26 percent share and the remaining 52 percent will be globally bid,” Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar said. Sindri unit was the first PSU in independent India. The government has taken a decision to revive Sindri through the bidding route. This plant has not been in operation since 2002. There is no functional urea unit in the eastern part of the country except two small units at Namrup (Assam). “Government is also reviving Gorakhpur, Barauni, Talcheralong with Sindri and setting new up plant at Namrup. Together reviving of these fertiliser plants will create nearly 73 lakh tonnes of urea. The entire eastern and N-E India requires around 50 lakh tonnes of urea, the entire eastern India and NE will be urea self-reliant,” the minister said. Once all these capacities come up government will be in a position to supply urea to Nepal and Bangladesh, he said. The annual consumption of urea in the country is approximately 310 lakh tonnes, out of which 230 lakh tonnes is produced indigenously and the rest is imported. PTI