The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for extension of applicability of New Investment Policy (NIP)-2012 read with its amendment dated 7th Oct 2014 for the Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL).

RFCL is a Joint Venture Company consisting of National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Fertilizers Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) which was incorporated on 17.02.2015. RFCL is reviving the erstwhile Ramagundam Unit of FCIL by setting up a new gas based green field neem coated Urea Plant with the installed capacity of 12.7 Lakh Metric Ton per annum (LMTPA). The cost of the RFCL Urea project is ₹ 6165.06 crore. Gas to RFCL plant is supplied by GAIL through the MBBVPL (Mallavaram-Bhopal-Bhilwara-Vijaipur Gas Pipeline) of GSPL India Transco Limited (GITL).

The state-of-the-art gas based RFCL Plant is part of the initiative taken by the Government to revive the closed urea units of FCIL/HFCL in order to achieve self sufficiency in urea sector. The start of the Ramagundam plant will add 12.7 LMTPA indigenous urea production in the country and help to realize the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister to make India ‘Aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in the urea production. It will be one of the largest fertilizer manufacturing units of South India. The Project shall not only improve the availability of fertilizer to farmers but also give a boost to the economy in the region including development of infrastructure like roads, railways, ancillary industry etc. besides ensuring food security to the nation.

RFCL has various unique features like latest technology HTER (Halder Topse Exchange Reformer) to save energy in production of Urea among single train largest capacity Urea plant,  140 Meter high prilling tower to ensure best quality urea prills, fully automated bagging and rail / truck loading facility  for dispatch of Urea having capacity to dispatch more than 4000 MT Urea per day, MCR (Main Control Room) equipped with DCS (Distributed Control System), ESD (Emergency Shutdown system for improved safety and availability), On-line MMS (Machine Monitoring Systems), OTS (Operator Training Simulator), Environment monitoring system. The systems are operated by the highly motivated, dedicated, well trained Operations.

The facility integrates the world’s best technologies aiming to meet the demand for urea in Telangana as well as in the other Southern and central states of India, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, etc. The urea produced at RFCL shall be marketed by National Fertilizers Limited.

It may be noted that Government of India is reviving five closed units of FCIL / HFCL by setting up new Ammonia Urea Plants of 12.7 LMTPA capacity each at Ramagundam (Telangana), Talcher (Odisha), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar) through formation of Joint Ventures of leading PSUs with an investment of about ₹ 40 thousand crore. On operationalization of these Plants, indigenous urea production will be increased by 63.5 LMTPA which will reduce the import of urea to that extent and will save huge amount of foreign exchange and will lead towards self-reliance in urea sector realising the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minster for “AtmaNirbhar Bharat”.

Extension of New Investment Policy applicability enables RFCL revival and boosts domestic urea production capacity and supply. Approval extends the applicability of the New Investment Policy (NIP) 2012 (amended) to RFCL to enable revival of the former FCIL Ramagundam unit by establishing a new gas based neem coated urea plant, with gas supply via existing pipeline infrastructure, marketing through a public sector marketer, and institutional arrangements to support project execution, increased indigenous production, and reduced import dependence.