Coal India to form 2 JVs for Fertiliser Corp revival

Coal India Ltd on Tuesday received in-principle approval from its board to form two joint ventures to revive the Talcher urea plant of Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd in Odisha, the state-run miner said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

A consortium of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF), GAIL, CIL and FCIL has agreed to invest Rs8,000 crore for the revival of the urea plant with a production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum.

The two JVs will in turn set up an integrated coal gasification-cum-fertilizer and ammonium nitrate complex at Talcher by 2019, fertiliser minister Ananth Kumar said after the four firms signed joint venture agreements.

The plant to be built by the upstream consortia will be used for converting coal into synthetic gas or syngas while the downstream plant will manufacture urea and other fertilizers.

GAIL will holds 35 per cent in the upstream venutre, called GAIL Coal Gas (India) Ltd. FCIL will take 11 per cent interest while RCF and CIL will pick up 3 per cent each. The balance 48 per cent will be given to technology provider and financial institutions.

The downstream venture, Talcher Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd would be led by RCF and CIL with 40 per cent stake each while GAIL and FCIL will take 10 per cent apiece. The plant will manufacture 1.3 million tonnes of urea and other fertilisers annually, the minister said. ''India is deficit in urea production.

Earlier, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to form two separate joint ventures - one with state-run energy major GAIL and the other with RCF - to revive the urea plant and also build a power plant and coal washery facility at the site.

"The company will form two joint ventures ... JV 1 for Coal Gasification with GAIL as a major partner (and) JV 2 for fertiliser (ammonium nitrate) plants, coal mine, coal washery, power plant & utilities with RCF and CIL as major stakeholder," CIL said in its filing.