April 24, 2012

India's ONGC to launch urea plant in North Tripura 

An official sources said Saturday (Apr 21) that an INR5,000 crore (US$952 million) urea fertiliser manufacturing unit will be set up in India's North Tripura District as decided by Oil major ONGC.

Khobal has been selected for establishing the project, considering the close proximity to the Khobal gas field from where the natural gas (hydro carbon) would be supplied.

Last year ONGC had discovered huge gas reserves at Khobal, near the Assam-Agartala National Highway (NH-44).

With the commissioning of the project, the demand for urea fertiliser will be met not only for Tripura but also for the entire North-east region and a large chunk of the fertiliser could be exported to the neighbouring Bangladesh, ONGC sources said.

Last year chief minister Manik Sarkar had requested ONGC CMD Sudhir Basudeva to set up a fertiliser manufacturing facility in Tripura to ensure optimum utilisation of natural gas which was welcomed by ONGC, sources in the state government said.

Following the request from Sarkar, ONGC had invited expression of interest for setting up the manufacturing facility three months back and at least six big investors expressed their interest.

Meanwhile, CMD of ONGC would visit the state on April 23 and meet the chief minister.

During his visit, Basudeva would also review the status of 724-MW power project at Palatana in South Tripura district.

The first phase of the INR3500-crore (US$666.4 million) project is expected to be operational by June.