Panagariya to head panel to oversee revival of 3 urea plants

New Delhi: Government has set up a committee, headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, to oversee the revival of three urea plants as well as the progress of Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline, entailing investments of Rs 23,000 crore.

The committee will oversee the revival of closed state-run urea plants in Gorakhpur (UP), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar).

It will also review the progress on construction of Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline, a senior official told PTI.

"The committee will work on to establish the single window mechanism to provide required approvals for revival of three urea plants, and the gas pipeline," the official said.

Gas to all these urea plants would be provided at the pooling price from the Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline which requires an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

Each urea plant will require an investment of Rs 6,000 crore.

The government has already invited bids for revival of urea plants at Gorakhpur and Sindri.

Both the projects will be awarded through bidding process and the selected investor will have to set up, design, finance, construct, establish, operate and maintain a gas-based urea plant for a term of 33 years.

"Government wants that by the time these three urea plants are constructed, the gas pipeline should also be ready," the official added.

Other members of the committee are secretaries from departments of fertilisers, petroleum, public enterprises and expenditure.
State-run GAIL is working on to set up about 2000 km Jagdishpur-Phulpur-Haldia pipeline.

The revival of these three plants will help in meeting the demand of urea in the North-Eastern states.

Country's annual requirement of urea is about 30 million tonnes, while the domestic production is stagnant at 22 million tonnes, the rest is met through imports.