Lok Sabha Question No. 95 (STARRED), answered on 2022-07-22
Subject: Setting up of new Chemical Fertilizer Plants
Ministry: CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS
Asked by: Riti Pathak, Dileshwar Kamait

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

## LOK SABHA

STARRED QUESTION NO.  95* TO BE ANSWERED

ON: 22.07.2022

## Setting up of New Chemical Fertilizers Plants

- *95. SMT.  RITI PATHAK:

SHRI  DILESHWAR KAMAIT:

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

- (a) the details of fertilizer units/plants set up or proposed to be set up for production of chemical fertilizers in the country during the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether the Government has set up or proposes to set up any plant/production unit with external aid to address the shortage of fertilizers in various States;
- (c) if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise; and
- (d) the  steps  proposed  to  be  taken  to  ensure  uninterrupted  supply  and  increase domestic production of fertilizers?

## ANSWER

MINISTER FOR HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE AND CHEMICAL  & FERTILZERS

(DR. MANSUKH  MANDAVIYA)

*(a) to (d):   A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.  95* TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.07.2022 REGARDING 'SETTING UP OF NEW CHEMICAL FERTILIZER PLANTS'

(a)  to  (c).:  Government  of  India  has mandated  revival  of  Talcher,  Ramagundam, Gorakhpur and Sindri plants of Fertilizer  Corporation  of India  Ltd  (FCIL)  and  Barauni plant of Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd (HFCL) by forming Joint Venture Company of nominated PSUs as per details given below: -

|   Sl No. | Name of the Joint Venture Companies & Location             | State         |   Capacity (in LMTPA) | Progress(%) as on 30.06.2022   | Commissioning date   |
|----------|------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|-----------------------|--------------------------------|----------------------|
|        1 | Ramagundam Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd (RFCL), Ramagundam, | Telangana     |                  12.7 | 22.03.2021                     | 22.03.2021           |
|        2 | Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Ltd (HURL), Gorakhpur,         | Uttar Pradesh |                  12.7 | 07.12.2021                     | 07.12.2021           |
|        3 | HURL, Sindri,                                              | Jharkhand     |                  12.7 | 96.1                           | August, 2022         |
|        4 | HURL, Barauni,                                             | Bihar         |                  12.7 | 96.5                           | August, 2022         |
|        5 | Talcher Fertilizers Ltd (TFL), Talcher,                    | Odisha        |                  12.7 | 27.42                          | September, 2024      |

After  operationalization  of  all  these  urea  plant,  they  will  add  to  63.5  LMT  per annum of urea leading to reduction in equivalent amount of import of urea.

Further, Cabinet in its meeting held on 21.05.2015 inter-alia approved setting up of New urea plant of 8.646 LMTPA capacity in the existing premises of BVFCL, which has been notified by Department of Fertilizers vide OM dated 12.06.2015.

Besides  the  above  revival  plants,  two  urea  manufacturing  units  viz.  Matix fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd and Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd have been set up with  a  capacity  of  12.7  LMT  per  annum  at  Panagarh,  West  Bengal  and  Gadepan, Rajasthan respectively.

With respect to nano fertilizers, following nano urea plants have been set up / proposed to be set up:-

| Location                   | Production Capacity Bottles (500 ml) per Year (in Crore)   | Commercial Production/Anticipated Commercial production   |
|----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| IFFCO Kalol Gujarat        | 5.0                                                        | August 2021                                               |
| IFFCO Phulpur UP           | 6.0                                                        | Sept 2022                                                 |
| IFFCO Aonla UP             | 6.0                                                        | April 2023                                                |
| IFFCO Bengaluru, Karnataka | 6.0                                                        | March 2024                                                |
| RCF Trombay Maharashtra    | 5.0                                                        | March 2024                                                |
| NFL Nangal Punjab          | 5.0                                                        | July 2024                                                 |
| IFFCO Deoghar Jharkhand    | 6.0                                                        | Nov 2024                                                  |
| IFFCO Assam                | 5.0                                                        | Nov 2025                                                  |
| Capacity by 2025           | 44.0 Crore Bottles Per Year                                | 44.0 Crore Bottles Per Year                               |

(d): Government  of  India  has  also  notified  the  New  Urea  Policy  (NUP)  -  2015  on 25 th May,  2015 for  existing  25  gas  based  urea  units  with  the  objective  of  maximizing indigenous  urea  production;  promoting  energy  efficiency  in  urea  production;  and rationalizing subsidy burden on the Government. The implementation of NUP-2015 has led  to  additional  production  from  the  existing  gas  based  urea  units  due  to  which  the actual production of urea has increased by 20-25 LMTPA in comparison to the actual production during 2014-15.

Predicting the demand-supply gap and increased price of the imported urea, in 2021-22  one-time  permission  was  granted  to  the  urea  units  set  up  under  the  new investment  policy  and  the  units  converted  recently  from  naphtha  to  natural  gas  as feedstock  to  produce  beyond  their  annual  installed  capacity.  This  helped  additional production of 1.51 Lakh Metric Ton (LMT) of Urea. Further, urea unit of Matix Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (Matix) in Panagarh had been lying shutdown since November 2017 was facilitated in restarting its production. Matix restarted production in September 2021 and produced 6.29 LMT urea during 2021-22. Further, Department of Fertilizers by means of various review meetings from time to time instructed all the urea units not to  take  any  planned  shutdown  and  optimize  their  urea  production.  These  measures together led to the urea production of 250.72 LMT during 2021-22 which is the highest production, so far.

Further,  Government  has  notified  Potash  derived  from  Molasses  (0-0-14.5-0) under  its  Nutrient  based  Subsidy  (NBS)  Scheme  vide  notification  dated  13.10.2021. Potash derived from Molasses is a 100 % indigenously manufactured fertilizers. This inclusion will help in increasing domestic production of fertilizers.

The Government has taken following steps to meet the demand of fertilizers in the country: -

- i. Before the commencement of each cropping season, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), in consultation with all the State Governments, assesses  the  month-wise  &  state-wise  requirement  of  all  fertilizers  and  sends the same to DoF.
- ii. On  the basis of month-wise & State-wise projection given  by  DA&FW, Department of Fertilizers allocates sufficient/ adequate quantities of fertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitoring the availability.
- iii. The movement of all major subsidized fertilizers is being monitored throughout the  country  by  an  on-line  web  based  monitoring  system  called  integrated Fertilizer Monitoring System (iFMS);
- iv. The State Governments are regularly advised to coordinate with manufacturers and importers of fertilizers for streamlining the supplies through timely placement of indents for railway rakes.
- v. Regular  Weekly  Video  Conference  is  conducted  jointly  by  Department  of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) and Department of Fertilizers (DoF) with  State  Agriculture  Officials  and  corrective  actions  are  taken  to  dispatch fertilizer  as  indicated  by  the  State  Governments.  The  gap  between  demand (requirement) and production in case of urea, is met through timely imports. In case  of  P&K  fertilizers,  the  imports  come  under  Open  &  General  license  and fertilizer companies import these fertilizers based on their commercial judgments.

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