Triprua government has allotted 800 acres of land to set up a Rs. 5000-crore Urea fertiliser plant. An ONGC official on Saturday said that works for the largest industrial initiative in the State would begin early next year.
The ONGC, Tripura Government, and private Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals had signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) on April 9 to set up the plant in Unkoti district by 2016. ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva and Triprua Chief Minister Manik Sarkar were present on the occasion.
“The State government has allotted 800 acre land in Kailashahar in Unkoti district for the plant”, the ONGC official said. Kailashahar is the headquarters of the district and earlier there were discussions to set up the huge plant in neighbouring Kumarghat subdivision.
ADVERTISEMENT
The supply of gas to the plant site would be made available from newly discovered Khubal well in the area. However experts are yet to find out a regular source to bring in water to the plant site.
Officials of the Triprua government — which has a ten per cent share in the plant — hoped that Bangladesh would grant permission for transportation of fertilizer via pipeline to rest of India through Bangladesh. The cross border transit facility would ease price of the Urea fertilizer and could meet demand in a short time.
ONGC had earlier invested a lot to set up a gas-based 727 MW combined cycle power plant at Palatana in south Tripura in partnership with the Tripura government and two central government enterprises. But power generation from the project has been halted due to serious technical snags.
ADVERTISEMENT
Exploration of gas in Tripura is projected at 2.8 million standard cubic metre or mmscmd. Half of the production is marked for Palatana plant.