FCI fertiliser unit in Odisha’s Talcher to start production by 2018

Odisha Sun Times Business Bureau
Mumbai, Aug 30:

The Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) urea plant at Odisha’s Talcher, to be revived with an estimated investment of Rs 8,000 crore, will start production by 2018.

The investment would be pumped in through the nodal agency Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF), a Central PSU, RCF Chairman and Managing Director R G Rajan said here yesterday.

“We are investing Rs 8,000 crore to revive the fertiliser complex at Talcher. The company has already received pre-Public Investment Board (PIB) clearance. We now expect final PIB and Cabinet clearance in the next 3-4 months. The project is expected to go on stream by 2018,” Rajan told reporters in Mumbai.

Besides, the state-run company will invest around Rs 14,000 crore over the next four years for expansion of other closed units of FCI, he added.

Notably, the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) ordered closure of FCI’s Talcher unit in 2002 as it was making losses over a period of time. After nearly a decade, revival plans were mooted during the UPA government in 2012. The demolition process of some portions of the old unit began after the revival plan received Cabinet approval,

A consortium of Rashtriya Chemicals Fertilisers (RCF), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), Coal India Limited (CIL) and Fertiliser Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) began the process for revival of the unit last year.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in February last year between these companies for revival of the Talcher unit. The MoU provided for formation of two separate joint ventures to revive the plant with a production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum. The first joint venture was for upstream coal gasification with GAIL having the major stake. The second JV was for urea-cum-ammonia nitrate complex with RCF and CIL being the major stakeholders.

While RCF and CIL have around 42 per cent stake each in the JV for downstream, GAIL has 5 per cent stake and the rest was with FCIL.

In the upstream JV, around 80 per cent stake was held by GAIL and about 10 per cent stake was with the technology provider of coal gasification. The rest was with FCIL.

This project will utilize state-of-the-art coal gasification technology for production of urea. Separate urea and ammonia plants will be there in the unit, sources said.