Govt asked to revive State-owned urea plants

A parliamentary panel has asked the government to explore revival of urea fertiliser plants at Durgapur, Haldia and Korba to boost domestic demand and reduce import dependency.

India imported more than 100 lakh tonne of urea during the 2025-26 fiscal.

In the Lok Sabha on Monday, the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers presented a report on ‘Self-sufficiency in production of fertilizers with a view to curb import of fertilizers - review of constraints thereof’. The report pertains to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (Department of Fertilizers).

The panel pointed out that the domestic urea production stood at 307 lakh tonne against consumption of 388 lakh tonne in 2024-25. The demand is projected to rise to 444 lakh tonne by 2035-36.

In view of rising demand, the committee is of the view that existing idle infrastructure may merit closer consideration in the overall strategy for enhancing domestic capacity.

“The committee note that the Department’s reply effectively defers a decision on the revival of the Durgapur and Haldia units of HFCL (Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd) and the Korba unit of FCIL (Fertilizer Corporation of India) to a future stage, based on the demand-supply gap of urea after the operationalization of existing plants,” the report said.

The Korba unit of FCIL, despite its locational advantage in Chhattisgarh, has not been specifically addressed in the government’s reply, the report said. The committee, therefore, recommended that the “government may consider examining the feasibility of revival of the Durgapur, Haldia and Korba units in a time bound manner, in alignment with evolving demand supply dynamics.”

The department should also consider commissioning techno-economic feasibility studies for these units, including assessment of appropriate technological options such as coal gasification for Korba, the panel said, while directing the department to apprise on this issue.

Further, the committee asked the department to share updates on the progress regarding finalization of the Durgapur lease deed with the West Bengal government.

In its reply, the department informed the panel that the Centre had announced revival of Ramagundam (Telangana), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Talcher (Odisha) units of FCIL and Barauni (Bihar) unit of HFCL through joint venture company of nominated PSUs for setting up new ammonia-urea plants of 12.7 lakh tonne per annum capacity each.

The revival of FCIL’s Talcher unit is under execution stage. After operationalization of Talcher unit, a total of 63.5 lakh tonne per annum of domestic production would be added, the department added.

In addition, a new fertilizer plant at Namrup, Assam of 12.7 lakh tonnes per annum has been approved and JV agreement signed.

“Therefore, decision on revival of other units of FCIL and HFCL would be taken based on the demand supply gap of urea after operationalization of all these plants,” the department replied.