Adur Pradeep, OP
Bhubaneswar: Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL), a leading producer of phosphatic fertilisers, will invest around Rs 10,000 crore in a phased manner, providing jobs to around 2,500 people, a top official of the company told Orissa Post.
“The company will invest around Rs 10,000 crore in a phased manner. The new plants are a DAP Plant of 1300-MTPD capacity, a GSSP Plant (1650-MTPD), an Ammonia Plant (2200-MTPD), an Urea Fertiliser Plant (3850-MTPD), a Nitric Acid Plant (1000 MTPD), an Ammonium Nitrate Plant (1100 MTPD), an Aluminium Fluoride Plant (9500 MTPA) and a coal handling plant,” Vishwajit Kumar Sinha, the Chief Operating Officer of PPL said.
“The expansion of the plants will create jobs for around 2,500 people in engineering and other areas,” he pointed out.
On the company’s expansion plans he said, “Our plan is to revamp existing units to increase production from 1.3 MT to 1.47 MT with an investment of Rs 250 crore. The project will be completed by 2020.”
“We have also started working on setting up a new integrated production line costing Rs 3,800 crore which will provide an additional capacity of around 0.8 MTs.”
The third phase of investment which has been approved by the Odisha government is to set up a coal gasification-based ammonia-urea plant. We had a discussion with IOCL for a long term tie-up for utilising the coke/pet-coke produced by IOCL Paradeep.”
On the company’s performance the COO said, “The performance of our company is going to be good due to the good monsoon, uninterrupted supply of raw material, cooperation of our partners, scientific management, increase in the production of products like Di-Ammonium Phosphate, Phosphoric Acid, Ammonia, Sulphuric Acid etc. Our scientific management practices will also help achieve efficiency in our Paradeep plant. Our market share is also increasing as we have been supplying quality products to farmers.”
Pointing out some of the major aspects connected to the sector in the Union Budget 2018-19 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, he said, “We welcome the Budget as the focus is on agriculture. The huge outlay is needed to ensure food security for our country. The target to double the income of farmers would result in distribution of resources. These efforts of the government can double farmers’ income by 2022. This will substantially help the entire value chain of agriculture and the fertilizer industry, where we are a significant player.”
He is also optimistic that there would be a turnaround in the fortunes of the agriculture sector soon.
“The government’s efforts are well established. They have provided a huge outlay for agriculture. The growth of the agriculture sector, particularly implementation of total food security, will distribute the fruits of development and will have a huge impact on agri-entrepreneurs.” (PNN)