Sindri is likely to return to its heyday and all set to rise from ashes as the Central Government prepared a revival plan for the fertiliser plant situated in the city. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on May 21 gave its approval for the revival of closed urea unit of Fertiliser Corporation India limited (FCIl) at Sindri with an investment of Rs6000 crore.
This unit was lying defunct and was not in operation since 2002. Therefore, the unit and other associated facilities were lying unutilized. Interestingly, there is no functional urea unit in the Eastern part of the country, except two small units at Namrup (Assam) hence the decision of the Modi Government signals gain in many areas as the officials are still assessing the abundance of good fortune the decision is likely to bring to Jharkhand.
“The benefit will not only be in terms of revenue only as any investment fuels employment plus ancillary businesses also come up alongside the unit. Apart from benefits, it will also improve investment scenario in the State,” said Secretary, Industry, Himani Pandey.
The annual consumption of urea in the country is around 310 lMT, out of which 230 lMT is produced indigenously and rest is imported. To enhance the production of urea indigenously, Government had earlier approved the revival of Talcher (Odisha) & Ramagundam (Telangana) units of FCIl by PSUs through ‘nomination route’ and Barauni unit of Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation limited (HFCl) & Gorakhpur unit of FCIl through ‘Bidding route’. Significantly, Sindri unit has been approved for revival through ‘Bidding route’. Earlier, its revival was to be done through PSUs (SAIl & NFl).
The setting up of a new unit at Sindri is likely to address the growing demand of urea in the States of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand besides, easing pressure on railway and road infrastructure due to long distance transportation of urea from Western and Central regions and thereby saving in Government subsidy on freight, said a press communiqué from the press information bureau. The press communiqué further stated that the revival will also accelerate the economic development of the region and apart from growth of regional economy; this unit will create opportunities for 500 direct and 3000 indirect employments.
“The good thing about Sindri is that it is located on the Eastern Freight Corridor so it is significant that we have a production unit along the corridor,” added Pandey.
Set up in 1951, FCI in Sindri was India’s first factory to produce ammonium sulphate and production of urea and ammonium nitrate sulphate started in 1959. However, it was declared sick in 1992 and the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) recommended its closure in 2001 thus putting the city out of the map of chemical fertiliser producing cities.