Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers (MCF) Ltd, a subsidiary of Zuari Agro and Chemicals Ltd (ZACL), has received environmental clearance to set up a 1 million tonne phosphatic fertiliser plant at its existing facility in New Mangalore, a senior official said here on Thursday.
“We received the approval from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change about 10 days ago. The plan is to set up a new DAP/NPK plant of 8,00,000 tonnes capacity at Mangaluru,” MCF Managing Director Suresh Krishnan told BusinessLine. The company currently has a 4-lakh-tonne DAP/NPK plant at Panambur in New Mangalore.
MCF, an erstwhile UB Group company, became a subsidiary of ZACL when the Saroj Kumar Poddar-led Zuari Group acquired a 53 per cent stake in 2015.
According to Krishnan, the company plans to complete the financial and proposal evaluation shortly, and the commissioning is expected by 2020.
“The gas pipeline from Kochi, for which we have already made investments, is expected to be ready by early next year, making us a gas-based urea plant. Once that happens, the overall financial benefits that flow under the government policy will be used to kick-start the expansion plan,” he said.