The Tripura government in a joint venture with ONGC and Tata Chemicals would set up a Rs 5,000 crore fertiliser manufacturing unit in north Tripura district by using the natural gas available in the state.

The Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar said, “It was decided that ONGC and Tata Chemicals would jointly set up Rs 5,000 crore fertiliser company and Tripura government would buy 10 per cent equity of the company”.

The company would sell equities of Rs 2,000 crore in the market.

ONGC has initially selected Khobal in north Tripura district, about 150-km from here for setting up the project considering proximity to Khobal gas field from where natural gas (hydrocarbon) would be supplied, Sarkar said.

Last year, ONGC had discovered huge gas reserves at Khobal near Assam-Agartala National Highway (NH-44). With the commissioning of the project, the demand for fertiliser will be met not only for Tripura but also for the entire north-east region, West Bengal, Odisha and a large chunk of the fertiliser could be exported to neighbouring Bangladesh, he said.

Last year, the Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had requested ONGC CMD, Sudhir Vasudeva to set up a fertiliser manufacturing company in Tripura to ensure optimum utilisation of natural gas which was welcomed by ONGC.

Following the request, ONGC had invited expression of interest for setting up a manufacturing unit and at least three big investors, including Tata Chemicals had expressed their interest.

The oil and gas major has already set up a 726 MW gas based thermal power project in the state through ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) at Palatana in Gomati district.

The project has started generating power on trial basis, but full fledge generation would be started after transmission line is complete and connected with the national grid at Bongaigaon.

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