Barauni Plant of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL) commences urea production

The country has achieved another milestone by setting up a new ammonia urea plant at Barauni which started urea production yesterday (Tuesday), the ministry said in a statement.

The state-of-the-art gas-based Barauni Plant is part of the initiative taken by the government to revive the closed urea units of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation Ltd (HFCL) in order to achieve self-sufficiency in urea sector.

Revival of closed units of FCIL and HFCL had been the top priority agenda of the present government to augment the availability of domestically produced urea, according to the statement.

Government-mandated Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL) would revive the Barauni unit with an estimated investment of Rs 8,387 crores with a urea production capacity of 12.7 LMTPA.

HURL, incorporated on June 15, 2016 is a Joint Venture Company by Coal India Limited (CIL), NTPC Limited (NTPC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and FCIL/HFCL mandated to revive Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni units with an estimated investment of Rs. 25,000 crores.

"The start of all three plants of HURL will add 38.1 LMTPA indigenous urea production in the country and help to realize the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India ‘Aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in urea production. It is one of the largest fertilizer manufacturing units of India, for which the foundation stone was laid by the Prime Minister," the ministry said.

The project will not only improve the availability of fertilizer to farmers but also give a boost to the economy in the region including the development of infrastructure like roads, railways, ancillary industry, etc. besides ensuring food security to the nation, it said.

HURL Plants has various unique features like state-of-the-art blast-proof control room equipped with DCS (Distributed Control System), ESD (Emergency Shutdown System), and environment Monitoring Systems etc.

It also has India’s First Air Operated Bullet Proof Rubber Dam of 65 meters in length and 2 meters in height.

There is no offsite wastewater disposal in these plants. The systems are operated by highly motivated, dedicated, well-trained Operators, according to the statement.

"The facility integrates the world’s best technologies aiming to meet the demand for urea in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha," it said.

Apart from urea supply, the project will also help to develop small and medium-scale industries/vendors around the manufacturing unit, it underscored, adding that there will be a lot of entrepreneurship activities around the hub and it will further boost employment generation.

"The operation of plants will lead to make the country self-reliant in urea fertilizer, Saving in Foreign Exchange due to reduced imports, and a giant step towards 'Atamnirbhar Bharat in Fertilizers,'" read the statement.

It may be noted that the Gorakhpur plant of HURL already commissioned in Dec 2021 and Sindri Plant is likely to be commissioned shortly, it added.