NEW DELHI, 24 June 2020: Indian minister of chemicals and fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda took stock of the progress of Talcher Fertilisers Limited (TFL). The plant is developing a urea unit of 12.7 lakh metric tonnes per annum capacity at Talcher, Odisha.

During a meeting with S.N. Yadav, MD and S. Gawade, Director (operations) of Talcher Fertilisers Ltd was also present.

The project is a Joint Venture Company (JVC) promoted by Rashtriya Chemical & Fertilizers Limited (RCF), Coal India Limited (CIL), GAIL (India) Ltd. (GAIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) When completed it will be first of its kind in India to employ coal gasification technology for production of urea.

The estimated cost of the project is around INR 13,270 crore. The successful completion of the project will reduce India’s dependency on imported urea, and is expected to create hundreds of direct and indirect employments.

During the meeting S.N. Yadav, MD briefed about the status of progress of the project and various challenges being faced during the execution of the project due to the COVID-19 crisis. He said that work has started since May and has gathered pace.

However, due to issues such as travel restrictions and shortage of laborers the project has got delayed by about six months as of today. He assured that the project will be commissioned at the stipulated deadline.

Minister said that the COVID situation may have delayed the execution of the project at present, we must, however,  be prepared to compensate the current delay by faster execution in the future so that the project is commissioned by deadline i.e., September 2023.

When commissioned TFL along with the other four revival projects at Ramagundam, Gorakhpur, Barauni, and Sindri will be able to realize the vision of  Prime Minister to achieve self-sufficiency in urea production.