Fertilizer Ministry to set up urea plants along Rs. 10,000 crore gas pipeline.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviving a Rs. 10,000 crore gas pipeline to take gas to the east, Fertilizer Ministry is planning to set up two urea plants along the pipeline route.

The 2,050-km pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal will pass through Varanasi, Modi's constituency, and 16 other eastern cities. The pipeline will provide CNG and PNG services in these cities and provide feedstock gas to fertilizer plants in the region.

'We are exploring the possibility of setting up two fertiliser plants along the Jagdispur-Haldia gas pipeline, with investment of around Rs. 10,000 crore,' Fertilizer Secretary J K Mohapatra told PTI.

The plants will need 4-5 million standard cubic meters per day of gas and will become anchor customers of the gas flowing to the east, he said.

Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar has held two rounds of meetings with Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and PSUs in both petroleum and fertiliser sector over the issue.

The blueprint of Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline was drawn in 2004-05 but state gas utility GAIL India was reluctant to start work as it did not find the project economically feasible in the absence of a source of gas and consumers.

However, after Modi's push, GAIL has announced plans to restart work on the line though it has not indicated timelines for completion of the project.

Refusing to identify the location of the urea plants, Mohapatra said a cooperative has envisaged interest in setting up a unit and the other plant could even be bid out.

According to sources, plants are expected to come up at the Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL) closed urea plants in Gorakhpur and Barauni.

ET