The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval for the extension of the applicability of New Investment Policy (NIP)-2012, read with its amendment dated October 7, 2014, for the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (RFCL).
The RFCL is a joint venture company consisting of National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL), Engineers India Ltd (EIL), and Fertilisers Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) which was incorporated on February 17, 2015. RFCL is reviving the erstwhile Ramagundam (Telangana) unit of FCIL by setting up a new gas-based green field neem-coated urea plant with an installed capacity of 12.7 lakh metric ton per annum (LMTPA).
The cost of the RFCL urea project is Rs 6,165.06 crore, and gas to the plant is supplied by GAIL through the MBBVPL (Mallavaram-Bhopal-Bhilwara-Vijaipur Gas Pipeline) of GSPL India Transco Ltd(GITL).
The state-of-the-art gas-based RFCL plant is part of the initiative taken by the government to revive the closed urea units of FCIL/HFCL in order to achieve self-sufficiency in the urea sector.
The start of the Ramagundam plant will add 12.7 LMTPA indigenous urea production in the country and help to realize the vision of the Prime Minister to make India ‘Aatmanirbhar’ in urea production. It will be one of the largest fertilizer manufacturing units of south India, said an official statement.
The project shall not only improve the availability of fertilizer to farmers but also give a boost to the economy in the region including the development of infrastructure like roads, railways, ancillary industry, etc. besides ensuring food security to the nation.
The statement said that the facility integrates the world’s best technologies aiming to meet the demand for urea in Telangana as well as in the other southern and central states of India, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra among others. The urea produced at RFCL shall be marketed by the NFL.
The Centre is reviving five closed units of FCIL/HFCL by setting up new ammonia urea plants of 12.7 LMTPA capacity each at Ramagundam, Talcher (Odisha), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindri (Jharkhand), and Barauni (Bihar) through the formation of joint ventures of leading PSUs with an investment of about Rs 40,000 crore.
On operationalization of these plants, indigenous urea production will be increased by 63.5 LMTPA which will reduce the import of urea to that extent and will save a huge amount of foreign exchange, and will lead towards self-reliance in the urea sector, the statement said.
