TALCHER: Sixteen years after the closure of Talcher Fertilizer plant, prospects of a new fertiliser unit at the very site has brought cheer to the people of the region. Prime Minster Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the new coal gasification-based fertiliser plant on Saturday. Governor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will also grace the occasion. Modi is also slated to address a public meeting at Talcher.
The plant will be set up under a joint venture company Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL) at a cost of `12,000 crore. The JV comprises Rashtriya Chemical and Fertilizers (RCF), Gas Authority Of India Limited (GAIL), Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL).
Because of its land and infrastructure, FCI will be the sleeping partner without any investment or any managerial say. While FCI will have a share of 10.9 percent, the rest will be equally divided among the three other promoters. The new coal gasification-based fertilizer plant will produce urea from ammonia. To be completed in three years, the plant will produce 2200 tonne of ammonia and 3850 tonne of urea per day.
The old plant, a brainchild of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, started commercial production of urea in 1980. However, the plant could not make any profit and ran losses till 1992 when the then Narasimha Rao Government sent it to Board of Industrial Financing and Reconstruction (BIFR).
The plant continued operation without budgetary financing till March 1999 when it stopped production completely. In 2002, it was permanently shut down. Subsequently, the UPA Government decided to revive the plant and in 2012, the then Fertilizer Minster Srikanta Jena started a site office of RCF here and announced that work would start soon.However, there was no progress on the project till the current NDA Government decided to set up a new plant in place of the old one.