(a) whether any survey has been conducted by KRIBHCO to restart the closed Fertilizer
Factory of Gorakhpur but the same has not been cleared by the Government so far;
(b) if so, the reasons therefor; and
(c) the action proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS(SHRI SATYA BRATA MOOKHERJEE)
(a) to (c): Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd., (KRIBHCO) had submitted a proposal to set up new
ammonia urea plants at the existing site of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd.`s closed unit at
Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs.1536 crore with an annual urea capacity of 768 lakh metric tonnes to the Government for investment approval under the prescribed
procedure. This proposal along with three other proposed urea projects in the Public/ Cooperative
sector, were approved `in principle` by the Government in April, 1999, subject to investment
appraisal by the Public Investment Board (PIB). Investment appraisal of all these projects was
undertaken by the PIB in July 1999. In June 2000, a proposal for taking a final investment
decision on these projects was considered and deferred by the Government. This proposal was
formulated taking into account the observations of the PIB regarding the viability of the projects,
desirability of encouraging use of Liquefied Natural Gas as feedstock to reduce the incidence of
subsidy and the need to stagger the implementation of the proposed projects due to limited
demand supply gap forecasts.