Parliament Panel for revival of closed fertiliser units

News

• Taking note of slow progress in revival of eight closed fertiliser units, a Parliament panel has recommended “expeditious” revival of sick and closed units within a fixed time-frame.
• At present, all five plants of Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCIL) and three plants of the Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd (HFCL) are lying closed.

Progress

• Out of these eight closed plants, Fertiliser Ministry informed the panel that revival of FCIL’s Ramagundam and Talcher units has been started.
• Besides these two units, the Ministry is considering to revive Sindri and Barouni unit through bidding route and for the Gorakhpur unit it is exploring the feasibility of revival through nomination basis.

Outcome

• India’s urea output has remained stagnant at 22 million tonnes (MT) since 2007-08. The current demand is about 30 MT, forcing the nation to meet shortfall of 8 MT via imports.
• New greenfield urea capacity has not been added in the country for over a decade now.
• As a result of revival of these closed eight units, the estimated increase in production of urea in the country will be 1.30 million tonnes (MT) per annum per unit,