Lok Sabha Question No. 525 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-02-06
Subject: Investment in Urea Sector
Ministry: CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS
Asked by: POONAMBEN HEMATBHAI MAADAM

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 525

TO BE ANSWERED ON:

06.02.2018

## Investment in Urea Sector

## 525:  SHRIMATI POONAMBEN MAADAM:

Will the Minister of CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken concrete steps to attract fresh investments in the urea sector and to make the country self-sufficient in this sector, if so, the details and outcome thereof;
- (b) whether the Government is still facing difficulty in producing sufficient quantity of urea, if so, the challenges being faced by the domestic producers of urea and the manner in which the Government is trying to mitigate the shortage of urea in the country; and
- (c) the details of the steps taken/being taken by the Government for the revival of closed urea units?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  IN THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING;  AND  MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  MINISTRY  OF  CHEMICALS  & FERTILIZERS

## (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

(a) : The Government has announced New Investment Policy -2012) on  2 nd January,  2013  and  its  amendment  on  7 th October  2014  to  facilitate  fresh investment in urea sector and to make India self-sufficient in the urea sector. Under the provisions of NIP-2012 and its amendment, Matix Fertilisers & Chemicals Limited (Matix)  has  set  up  a  Coal  Bed  Methane  (CBM)  based  Greenfield  Ammonia-Urea complex  at  Panagarh,  West  Bengal  with  the  installed  capacity  of  1.3  MMT  per annum. The commercial production of Matix has started on 1 st October, 2017.Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (CFCL) has also proposed to set up a brownfield project with capacity of 1.34 MMT at Gadepan, Rajasthan, which is likely to start commercial production in January, 2019.

(b) : The installed capacity of 30 urea manufacturing units is 207.54 LMT against which the total indigenous urea production during the year 2015-16 and 2016-17 was 244.75 LMT and 242.01 LMT respectively.

The  requirement  of  urea  in  the  country  is  assessed  by  the  Department  of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare in consultation with State Governments and  is  met  through  indigenous  production.  Since  the  indigenous  production  is  not sufficient to meet the requirement of urea in the country, the gap between demand and supply through indigenous production is met through imports.

(c) : In order to increase the production of fertilizers by Central PSUs, Government has decided to revive closed units namely Gorakhpur, Sindri, Talcher and Ramagundam units of (FCIL) and Barauni unit of  Hindustan  Fertilizer  Corporation Limited (HFCL) by setting up of 1.27 Million Metric Tonne per annum urea plant at these units. All of these units are targeted to become operational by  2020-21.

In addition to above, the Government has also decided to install a new Urea plant  of  8.646  Lakh  Metric  Ton  (LMT)  per  annum  in  the  existing  premises  of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL), which will subsequently replace the existing Namrup II (Capacity 2.40 LMT) and Namrup III (Capacity 2.70 LMT) units.

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