The urea sector contributes significantly to fertiliser production and consumption in India. It accounts for 60% of the total fertiliser consumption and 50% of the total fertiliser imports in terms of volume. The total requirement of urea in the country was 340 LMT during 2019-20, out of which 92.40 LMT was imported as the domestic production capacity is 220 LMT. However, a total of 245 LMT of urea was produced in Bharat during FY 2019-20, implying a capacity utilisation of 113.60%.
Further, as part of securing significant domestic production, the government has also taken the bold decision of establishing brownfield urea manufacturing units through joint ventures (JV) formed by several Navaratna and Mini Ratna Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
The first such JV is Ramagundam Fertiliser and Chemical Ltd (RFCL), owned jointly by Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (RCF), Engineers India Ltd (EIL), National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL), and FCIL. The plant has been commissioned with an annual production capacity of 12.7 lakh MT of urea. The RFCL plant is located in the Karimnagar district of Telangana.
The government of India has also facilitated the formation of another JV company Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Limited (HURL) with Coal India Ltd (CIL), NTPC, and Oil India Ltd (OIL) as major shareholders and HFCL and FICL as minority shareholders. It is executing three brownfield urea manufacturing units at Gorakhpur in UP, Barauni in Bihar, and Sindri in Jharkhand. The estimated project cost of these three plants is more than Rs Twenty thousand crores.