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Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd (HURL) will award projects for the first of its three gas-based fertilizer plants before the year-end.
HURL is the joint venture between NTPC Ltd, Coal India Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd. The JV was assigned the responsibility of reviving three fertiliser plants at Gorakhpur, Sindri of FCI, and Barauni of HFCL in June 2016.
Time-frame
IndianOil Chairman Sanjiv Singh, who is also the chief of the joint venture, said, “My assessment is that the work for the first one will be awarded in another 15 days. Our target is to commission all the three plants in 2020.”
“We have got the environmental clearance for all the three plants that are located in the same areas. Area clearing and pre-project activities are going on. We have got the tenders, we have lined up the consultant. We have got the tenders for EPC contractors and the technology selection will also be in their scope. We have shortlisted technologies. We have opened the tenders and evaluation is going on,” Singh told BusinessLine.
Bid estimates
Commenting on the need to revise the budget, Singh said, “The bids are yet to be awarded, but my expectation is that it would be within 10 to 15 per cent of our estimate.”
The task for setting up of these three fertilizer plants have been entrusted to three Maharatna Public Sector Companies on equal cost-sharing basis.
An official statement had said that it was proposed to install an ammonia plant of 2,200 tonne per day and Urea plant of 3,850 tonne per day at each of these units at Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni at an estimated cost of ₹6,000 crore for each unit. The total project cost was estimated at ₹18,000 crore for the three plants, the statement added.
Team synergy
But, crude oil refiner IOCL, power generator NTPC, and coal miner CIL are not known for setting up fertilizer plants.
To this, Singh said, “That doesn’t matter. NTPC is good in project management. Indian Oil is good in process plants and so a fertilizer plant is not difficult for us. Half of it is a hydrogen plant and we operate 20 hydrogen plants. It’s normal for us. Coal India has a lot of money that they need to invest. So we have a good synergy. Once we make fertilizer, we can market it throughout the country through our petrol pumps.”
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