BS reported that three public sector units Coal India Limited, GAIL India Limited and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited will form a consortium to revive the closed unit of Fertilizer Corporation of India at Talcher at a cost of INR 10,000 crore.

The fertilizer plant at Talcher which has been closed since 2002 will run on the coal gasification route instead of the natural gas route.

Mr Srikant Jena Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers told Business Standard that "We have decided to revive at least five out of seven fertilizer plants across the country including the Talcher plant in Orissa. About INR 10,000 crore will be spent on revival of this plant and following revival, the plant will produce three million tonnes of fertilizers per annum.”

The minister said that since the bringing of natural gas from Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) to Talcher through pipe line is very difficult, we have decided to revive the plant through the coal gasification route as coal is available in the area. Besides Talcher, the Centre will also revive the other fertilizer plants at Ramkund and Sindri.

MrJena said that after all these fertilizer plants are revived, the country will become self sufficient in production of fertilizers like urea.

It may be noted that every year, the country imports about 5 to 6 million tonnes of urea, 4 million tonnes of Muriate of Potash and around 6 million tonnes of Di-Ammonium Phosphate.

(Sourced from sify.com)