China’s Wuhuan Engineering to build Talcher fertilisers’ coal gasification plant

Government has mandated Talcher Fertilizers Ltd (TFL), a joint venture company of RCF, GAIL, CIL, and FCIL, to revive the Talcher unit of FCIL with an estimated investment of Rs13,277 crore. The unit will have a production capacity of 1.27 MMTPA of neem coated urea through coal gasification technology. 

TFL has also been allotted the northern part of North Arkhapal mine as captive mine for meeting its coal requirements.

Speaking on the occasion, minister for chemicals and fertilisers D V Sadananda Gowda said TFL is implementing this project based on coal gasification technology, which is the first of its kind in India. The plant will use a blend of coal and pet coke as feedstock for production of urea. Coal for the project will be sourced from captive northern part of North Arkhapal mine in Talcher region allotted to TFL and petcoke shall be sourced from Paradip Refinery. This project will promote use of abundantly available domestic coal in an environment friendly manner. Success of this technology shall also propel usage of coal for production of other chemical products. 

The project will help improve India's self-sufficiency in urea, promote agriculture growth and availability of urea to farmers of Odisha, besides generating direct and indirect employment of about 4,500, a fertiliser ministry release stated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated works of the project in September last year and since then TFL has been executing many of the pre project activities. Further tendering process for other major packages is also underway and it is expected that a majority of the tenders shall be awarded before end of this fiscal, the release added.