In a bid to achieve self-sufficiency in urea production, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday approved a proposal to extend New Investment Policy (NIP) for three units of Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd (HURL) in Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni. The government encourages private entrepreneurs to invest in fertiliser manufacturing with an objective of ramping up domestic production capacities in India. The NIP 2012 was especially designed for this purpose.

Incorporated on June 15, 2016, HURL is a joint venture company by NTPC Ltd, Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL).

HURL is reviving the FCIL's Gorakhpur and Sindri units and the GFCL's Barauni Unit by setting up new gas-based urea plants, which will have installed capacity of 12.7 Lakh Metric Ton Per Annum each.

The total cost of three HURL urea projects is Rs. 25.120 crore. The three HUR units are getting natural gas supply from GAIL.

The HURL plants are a part of the government's initiative to revive the closed urea units of SCIL/HFCL for achieving self-sufficiency in the urea sector. The three units' commissioning will add 38.1 LMTPA indigenous urea production in India and will help realise the Prime Minister's vision of making the country ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in urea production.

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The project will improve fertiliser availability for farmers and also give the region's economy a boost, which will include infrastructure development such as railways, roads, ancillary industry, among others. It will also ensure food security to the nation.

The three HURL units have unique features such as emergency shutdown system (EDS), state-of-the-art blast proof control room that is equipped with the distributed control system (DCS) and environment monitoring systems.

The plants do not have offsite waste water disposal. The systems are operated by well trained Operators.

The HURL-Gorakhpur unit has the country's first Air Operated Bulled Proof Rubber Dam that is 65-meters-long and 2-meters-high.

The three facilities, integrating the world’s best technologies, will aim to meet the urea demand in seven states — Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

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