GAIL, Coal India, RCF to set up fertiliser unit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 24

To augment the domestic urea capacity, four PSUs — GAIL (India) Limited, Coal India Limited (CIL), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) — today signed Joint Ventures Agreements (JVAs) to set up an integrated coal gasification-cum-fertilizer and ammonium nitrate complex at Talcher in Odisha.

The first joint venture, GAIL Coal Gas (India) Limited shall be led by GAIL and will be primarily responsible for setting up the upstream coal gasification and gas purification section for production of ammonia gas syn for downstream fertilizer unit at an estimated investment of Rs 3,000 crore.

The second joint venture, Talcher Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited, shall be led by RCF and will be responsible for setting up ammonia-urea, nitric acid-ammonium nitrate plants at an estimated investment of Rs 6,000 crore with majority stake held by RCF & CIL.

The project aims to make breakthrough for an alternative source of feedstock in the form of abundantly available coal from domestic sources. As per statistics, the total coal reserves in the country are around 300 billion tonne with recoverable reserve of 173 billion tonne. Thus, the potential exists for converting these reserves into value-added products like syn gas for use by fertilizer and power plants at affordable price.

A suitable coal block for supplying coal to the project in the vicinity of the complex is being identified on priority basis by the government. The process for allocation of the block is being initiated by Ministry of Coal.

Success of this project is expected to be a game changer and shall pave a way forward to the production of fertilizer from abundantly available coal resulting in less dependency on imports.