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Kerala government on Friday sought assistance of the Centre for revival of Fertlisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) plant in the state and proposed the use of LNG in it for production of urea instead of naphtha.
“Ambalamedu Urea plant was closed in 2002 since the price of naphtha has gone up. We have an LNG terminal at Kochi. FACT can use LNG and operate the urea plant. We need to revive this plant so that it can produce 12 lakh tonne urea per year,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said after meeting Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, in New Delhi.
“We can seek assistance of other public sector companies like ONGC and GAIL. PM has agreed to this proposal. A total investment of Rs 6,000 crore is needed and to initiate the project we need 30 per cent of this amount, which is Rs 1,800 crore. But, we need to complete the gas pipeline work from Kochi to Mangalapuram. The Centre has agreed to initiate the revival process of FACT as soon as we complete this work,” Vijayan said.
“Centre plans to develop Urea plants across the country but FACT is not included in this project,” he told reporters, adding that he had demanded the inclusion for the development of FACT.
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“Around 620 acres belonging to FACT lies vacant in the state. Of this, 170 acres are set aside for the development of BPCL. The rest 450 acres can be used for FACT and KSIDC to develop a Petro Chemical complex and Pharma park. We have proposed to use this land effectively for the industrial development of the state under public sector enterprises,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to the proposal.
Vijayan was talking to the media after meeting Ananth Kumar and PM Modi in the capital.
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