New Delhi: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved revival of two shut fertiliser plants in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at an investment of up to Rs 12,000 crore and by making use of 2,000-km proposed gas pipeline from Jagdishpur to Haldia. The urea plants at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Barauni in Bihar will get the feedstock gas through the Rs 10,000-crore Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline that is being targeted for completion by 2019.
Besides feeding the two urea plants, the pipeline would also provide the fuel to power stations as well as to feed city gas requirements. The pipeline, which was originally proposed by state-owned gas utility GAIL India about a decade back but was on cold storage for lack of base demand, would also feed to the gas requirement of CNG for automobiles and piped cooking gas for households in cities along the route.
Briefing reporters about the decision taken at the Cabinet meeting, Telecom & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the pipeline would provide gas to 1 crore households in eastern India.
"The decision on gas pooling can help the government save Rs 1,550 crore subsidy, will improve operational efficiency, there will be uniform gas distribution and provide relief to farmers who face problems of urea supply," he said. The two fertiliser plants would be revived with an estimated investment of about Rs 12,000 crore and this will increase the country's urea capacity by 2.6 million tonnes, Fertiliser Minsiter Ananth Kumar said.
Terming the decision as first generation of urea reforms, Anath Kumar said these units were lying defunct and have not been in operation since 2004. Therefore, the units and other facilities were lying unutilised.
"We need about 220-230 lakh tonnes of urea annually in eastern parts of the country and at present there is only one fertiliser plant in the region. The revival of thse two fertiliser plants will make eastern India self sufficient in urea," Kumar said.
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