BHUBANESWAR: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved an exclusive subsidy policy for urea produced through coal gasification route by Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL). The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the approval to the proposal of the department of Fertilizers.It would assist in reducing urea imports to the tune of 12.7 LMT per annum leading to savings in foreign exchange, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters in Delhi after the Cabinet meeting.
“Considering the strategic energy security and urea self-sufficiency of the country, it has been decided go ahead with Talcher Fertilizer Limited plant based on coal gasification technology. The project shall improve availability of fertilizer to farmers thereby boosting development of eastern region and will save transport subsidy for supply of urea in eastern part of the country,” he said. The project will also give a boost to ‘Make in India’ initiative and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign’ and help development of infrastructure providing major boost to economy. The project will also provide new business opportunity in form of ancillary industries in the catchment area of the project, Goyal said.
He further said that coal gasification plants are strategically important as coal prices are non-volatile and it is abundantly available. Talcher plant will also reduce dependence on important natural gas for production of urea leading to reduction in LNG import bill.‘’We are confident that this project will write a new chapter in India’s fertilizer security and will also introduce this new technology in India,’’ he added.The gasification process adopted in Talcher unit is a clean coal technology with negligible sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide and free particulate emissions as compared to directly coal fired processes.
“The landmark decision will help enhance the global competitiveness of our domestic urea sector, boost indigenous production involving environment-friendly processes and help reduce imports to the tune of 12.7 LMT per annum,” Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted.TFL is a joint venture company of four PSUs namely Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF), GAIL (India) Ltd, Coal India Ltd and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd reviving the sick unit of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. by setting up a now greenfield urea plant at an estimated cost Rs 13,277 crore.