UPA's package to revive 8 fertilizer units

Kochi, May 10: The UPA Government has approved a revival package of Rs 22,000 crore to reopen eight units of the Fertiliser Corporation of India and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation, closed down during the NDA Government, Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Paswan said the revival package could not be announced due to the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh as one of the units concerned is in Gorakhpur.

Once the election formalities were over, the government would formally announce the package to reopen the eight fertiliser units including those at Barauni, Sindhri, Namrup, Durgapur, Haldea and Gorakhpur, he added.

As the UPA Government was committed to a vibrant public sector, all efforts were being made to revive the sick units and reopen the closed ones, he said.

To this end, the government had also approved the revival packages of FACT (Rs 670 crore), Hindustan Insecticides Ltd. (Rs 220 crore) and Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. (Rs 250 crore).

A Rs 400 crore package to revive the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (IDPL) was also being taken to the union cabinet. This would also involve a waiver of dues amounting to Rs 2,700 crore, he said.

Talking about his visit to the FACT's Cochin Plant today, Mr Paswan said the management had presented a four-point plan to further augment the plant's capacity and to diversify into areas such as information technology, food processing and defence-related production.

The main component of the new package, which would be referred to the cabinet for inclusion in the 11th Plan, was the revaming and reopening of the FACT urea plant here at a cost of Rs 1500 crore and the doubling of capacity of the caprolactam plant and downstream integration at a cost of Rs 700 crore.

The FACT had also proposed to utilise its surplus land to set up joint ventures with the Kerala Government. These included an FACT Knowledge Zone, a new IT Park at its Ambalamedu plant under the SEZ rules, a Food Park at Udyogamandal and a Defence Park to produce defence ancillary products in collaboration with the defence ministry.

Mr Paswan said Rs 8,000 crore in subsidy arrears to the fertilier companies would be paid by June-end this year.

He said the government wanted to step up domestic production of fertilisers as this was cheaper than imports. The domestic production at present was 200 lakh tonnes while the consumption was 250 lakh tonnes. The consumption was projected to exceed 300 lakh tonnes in the next five years.

The country would get 18 lakh tonnes of fertilisers this year from the joint venture in Oman, he added.

UNI