Press Trust of India
New Delhi, August 10: State-owned Coal India, gas utility GAIL and fertiliser majors RCF and FCIL will form a joint venture for revival of Talcher urea plant in Orissa, Parliament was informed Monday. Earlier, there was proposal to form two joint ventures. “A Memorandum of Understanding was signed amongst Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizer (RCF), Food Corporation of India (FCIL) and Coal India Ltd (CIL) on September 5, 2013 for setting up of a surface-coal gasification based urea, ammonium nitrate and chemical complex in the site of Talcher unit of FCIL through formation of two joint venture companies,” Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
However, it is now proposed to form one joint venture company, the minister said. The minister, however, said that the proposal to form joint venture company is subject to technical and financial viability through preparation of a detailed feasibility report (DPR). “The proposed Joint Venture company is yet to be registered,” the minister said. Coal Ministry, he said, has agreed to allot a coal block to the proposed joint venture company on formation of the same and finalisation of techno-economic feasibility report.
The board of directors of Coal India Ltd (CIL) had last year given its in-principle approval for these JVs. A consortium of RCF, GAIL, CIL and Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) had agreed to invest Rs 8,000 crore for the revival of this urea plant with a production capacity of 1.2 million tonne per annum. An MoU has been earlier signed to form two separate joint ventures to revive this plant and also build a power plant and coal washery facility at the site.
The first JV would be for upstream coal gasification with GAIL having a majority stake. The second JV would be for urea-cum-ammonia nitrate complex with RCF and CIL being major stakeholders, CIL had said.
