Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Thursday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allocate gas from the KG Basin Gas to IFFCO for the Urea plant in Nellore District.
Mr Rosaiah said in his letter to the Prime Minister that the urea plant requires 3 MMSCMD Gas in the first phase of 1.3million MTPA Urea and another 3MMSCMD in the second phase of additional 1.3 Million MTPA Urea.
Thanking Dr Manmohan Singh for his leadership which ensured food security in the country by according highest priority in allocating KG Basin Gas to fertilizer sector to actively promote additional fertilizer manufacturing capacities, Mr Rosaiah said that this is especially important for Andhra Pradesh as it is facing huge demand- supply gap in fertilizer which can be seen be the long lines and agitation of farmers waiting for fertilizers in the state.
“With your kind active support and taking help of your policy initiatives, we would like to resolve this issue with a durable solution. In this connection, I would like to inform you that Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) has come forward to invest Rs 10,000 crore and build a 2.6 Million tonne capacity Urea Plant in the State,” the Chief Minister said in his letter.
Mr Rosaiah added that, “You are aware that IFFCO is the world’s largest Fertilizer Cooperative with domestic production capacity of 42.5 lakh MTPA Urea and 43.5 lakh MTPA DAP/NPK.
“IFFCO had acquired about 2700 acres of land near Krishnapatnam Port in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh State for setting up an Ammonia- Urea Plant in 1997 itself.”
He regretted that this manufacturing facility could not materialize as there was no availability of Natural Gas so far.
Reminding the Prime Minister that KG Basin Gas is available in the State, he said that a major Natural Gas Pipeline would be passing along NH5 close to IFFCO’s existing Nellore site location, which has been authorized to be laid be Reliance Industries Ltd.
This pipeline is scheduled to be completed by the year 2012.
The Chief Minister wrote that the farmers of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka can be benefited as this plant will cater to the high demand areas of these States, being logistically well connected and equally near to these States, which avoids major transportation cost.
He said that the Prime Minister’s “favourable decision of in principle allocation of the required Natural gas will enable IFFCO to invest Rs 10,000 crore and make ready their plant by 2013/14. This, he said, would be highly appreciated by the grateful farmers of the State.