Union Minister updated status of FCIL units’ revival and FACT modernization

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Sadananda Gowda detailed the various initiatives undertaken by the government to boost the fertilizer sector to meet fertilizer requirements of farmers during the sowing season.

The minister said that Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited, CFCL has set up a Brownfield project at Gadepan, Rajasthan with a production capacity of 12.7 LMT of urea per annum which has helped in the production of 244.55 LMT of urea in the country during 2019-20.

He spoke about the government’s initiative of reviving the closed fertilizer units of FCIL at Ramagundam, Talcher, Gorakhpur and Sindri and the HFCL unit at Barauni which is a Joint Venture of nominated PSUs to set up gas based fertilizer plants each of 1.27 MMTPA capacity. The Ramagundam project is 99.58 percent complete and is in pre-commissioning / commissioning stage.

The Talcher project will be commissioned by 2023 and the Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni projects by 2021. He further stated that as per the Modified New Pricing Scheme (NPS-III), all units which are using naphtha as feedstock are to be converted to natural gas. He also said that Rs.900 crore will be invested in Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) for its modernization.