NAMRUP, Sept 1 � Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL), a Central public sector unit (CPSU) was incorporated on April 5, 2002 with the hived off Namrup units of Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd. It is fully owned by the Government of India. The company with its corporate and registered office at Namrup in Dibrugarh district has two urea manufacturing units, namely Namrup-II and Namrup-III at the same location. The Unit Namrup III with its Ammonia, urea and a 2�15 MW captive power generation plant went into commercial production on October 1, 1987. The other unit, Namrup-II with Ammonia and Urea plants went into commercial production on October 1976. Namrup-I plants, village of sixties, comprising of one Sulphuric Acid, one Ammonium Sulphate and one 167 TPD Urea-Ammonia plants had to be gradually phased out due to economic unviability. Namrup-I which went into production in 1969, was the first factory in India to use associated natural gas as basic raw material for producing nitrogenous fertilisers.
After the closure of the FCI and HFC group of plants in eastern India, BVFCL remained the lone urea manufacturing unit in this part of the country. It largely meets the urea requirement of the entire North East India and some parts of north Bengal and eastern Bihar. The existing Namrup-II has almost outlived its life and Namrup-III plants have further useful life of 4 to 5 years. The gestation period for setting up a new Brown Field Ammonia-Urea complex is 4 years. However, based on the study by Process Licensors, Namrup-III Plant can be revived with substantial investment to produce 1000 MT of urea per day. The energy consumption of revived Namrup- III plant will be substantially higher than the current economic size plant.
Keeping the above in view, BVFCL has proposed to instal a new brown field ammonia- urea plant at Namrup having capacity to produce 8.64 lakh MT of urea per annum consuming 1.72 MMSCMD of natural gas. As modern fertiliser plants are highly energy efficient, the urea production will be more than double to the existing production level of 3.9 Lakh MT of urea annually consuming same 1.72 MMSCMD of natural gas. The total project capital cost will be around Rs 3311.09 crore.
The proposal along with a copy of TEFR had been submitted to Planning Commission on May 13, 2011 for in-principle approval and thereafter further examination and allocation of fund in the 12th five year plan starting from 2012.
Its is to be added that a high-level delegation of Joint Council of Officers (JCO) BVFCL, led by BM Borthakur, GS, met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at Dispur along with the State Cabinet Minister of Handloom, Textiles and Cultural affairs cum Local MLA Pranati Phukan and submitted a detailed status of BVFCL, Namrup relating to the setting up a new Brown Field Ammonia Urea complex in the name & style of Namrup IV, requesting him to take urgent initiative to pressurise the Planning Commission as well as the Central Government for the allocation of required fund for the proposed new project . The CM gave a patient hearing to the delegation and assured that he would take up the matter with the competent Central authority. BM Borthakur said that the delegates also met the Union DoNER Minister PS Ghatowar during the later part of July at his Moran residence and held a series of discussions regarding BVFCL's all-round development. The minister assured the delegates to undertake all possible steps for the development of BVFCL including the implementation of revised pay scale, enhancement of retirement age up to 60 yrs extension of the tenure of present MD. Borthakur further told this correspondent here that a meeting on the detailed future map of BVFCL was held on 15.12.2009 in the office of the then MoS. Chemical & fertiliser Shrikant Jena at Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi. The meet was led by the then MP PS Ghatowar and Pranati Phukan Local MLA cum Dy Speaker (then) in which the representatives of JCO were also present. All procedures including the setting up of new Namrup IV plant, enhancement of fringe benefit, revised pay scale, have been initiated from that meeting.