Sindri fertilizer plant nearing completion
HURL setting up Rs6,500-cr plant at Sindri in Jharkhand; Plant’s annual capacity will be 12.7LMT; HURL is a JV of CIL, NTPC and IOC; It’s part of reviving 3 fertilizer factories at Sindri, Gorakhpur, and Barauni, for which govt earmarked total investment of Rs25,000 cr
Sindri fertilizer plant nearing completion
Time Overrun Project
- 97% work for the delayed project was completed
- It was scheduled to be operational in April 2021
- But due to Covid-19, it got delayed
New Delhi: The fertilizer plant at Sindri in Jharkhand, set up by Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd (HURL), is almost complete and is likely to become operational soon. The plant, which will have a capacity of 12.7 LMT per annum, is being built at a cost of Rs6,500 crore.
HURL was incorporated in June 2016 as a joint venture company by Coal India Ltd (CIL), NTPC Ltd, and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) as the lead promoters. Each public sector undertaking (PSU) unit holds 29.67 per cent equity in the JV. The other two equity holders are also PSUs: Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd, each owning 10.99 per cent.
The joint venture company was established with the objective of reviving the fertilizer factories at Sindri, Gorakhpur, and Barauni. The total estimated investment for this purpose was Rs 25,000 crore. The government had also approved an interest-free loan of Rs1,257.82 crore to HURL.
While the Gorakhpur plant was commissioned in December 2021, the one at Barauni began production last week. Over 97 per cent work at Sindri is complete, official sources told Bizz Buzz, adding that it too will soon be commissioned.
Owing to the Covid pandemic and the resultant disruptions, all three projects suffered in terms of time overruns, they said. The original schedule for commissioning of the Gorakhpur plant was February 2021 and for the other two plants was April 2021.
The schedule was revised to July 2021 and December 2021, respectively, but even that was missed.
The operationalization of the three plants will reduce the import dependency on urea by 38.1 LMT per annum, thus saving huge sums of foreign exchange.
The Sindri plant is well connected with major cities by way of Railways and roads. The Dhanbad district headquarters is about 26 km from the plant. The Grand Trunk Road connecting Kolkata and Delhi passes only about 25 km from the Sindri factory.
