By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 22, 2015: THE Union Cabinet has given its approval for the revival of closed urea unit of Fertilizer Corporation India Limited (FCIL) at Sindri (Jharkhand) with an investment of Rs 6000 crore.

This unit was lying defunct and was not in operation since 2002. Therefore, the unit and other associated facilities were lying unutilized. It is important to mention here that there is no functional urea unit in the Eastern part of the country except two small units at Namrup (Assam).

The annual consumption of urea in the country is approx. 310 LMT, out of which 230 LMT is produced indigenously and rest is imported. To enhance the production of urea indigenously, Govt. has earlier approved the revival of Talcher (Odisha) & Ramagundam (Telangana) units of FCIL by PSUs through ‘nomination route' and Barauni unit of Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited (HFCL) & Gorakhpur unit of FCIL through ‘Bidding route'. Now Sindri unit is approved for revival through ‘Bidding route'. Earlier, its revival was to be done through PSUs (SAIL & NFL).

The setting up of a new unit at Sindri will meet the growing demand of urea in the States of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. It will also ease the pressure on railway and road infrastructure due to long distance transportation of urea from Western and Central Regions and thereby saving in govt. subsidy on freight. It will also accelerate the economic development of the region. Apart from growth of regional economy, this unit will create opportunities for 500 direct and 3000 indirect employments.

The CCEA earlier had approved gas pooling for urea sector which will enable the unit to get gas at pooled price on its revival which will make the urea units globally competitive.