New Delhi, March 22 : In a move aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in urea production, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday approved a proposal to extend New Investment Policy (NIP) 2012 for three ts of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL). The government encourages private entrepreneurs to invest in fertilizer manufacturing with an objective of increasing domestic production capacities in the country. The NIP 2012 is especially designed for this purpose. HURL, a joint venture of Coal India, NTPC and IOCL, is reviving the erstwhile Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Sindri (Jharkhand) ts of FCIL and Bara (Bihar) t of GFCL by setting up new gas based urea plants with the installed capacity of 12.7 Lakh Metric Ton Per Annum each (ILMTPA). The cost of three HURL urea projects is Rs 25,120 crore. GAIL is supplying natural gas to these three ts of HURL. “The state-of-the-art based HURL plants are a part of the initiative taken by the government to revive the closed urea ts of SCIL/HFCL in order to achieve self-sufficiency in urea sector. The commissioning of the three ts will add 38.1 LMTPA indigenous urea production in the country and help to realize the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister to make India ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in the urea production,” said an official press release. The statement noted that the projects will not only improve the availability of fertilizer to farmers but will also give a boost to the economy in the region including development of infrastructure like roads, railways, ancillary industry etc. besides ensuring food security to the nation. All three HURL ts have various que features like blast proof control room equipped with DCS (Distributed Control System), ESD (Emergency Shutdown System) and environment Monitoring Systems. There is no offsite waste water disposal in these plants. HURL-Gorakhpur t has India’s first Air Operated Bulled Proof Rubber Dam of 65m length and 2m height. “These three facilities integrate the world’s best technologies aiming to meet the demand for urea in seven states of India, namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha,” the statement said. The CCEA also approved the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw jute for 2022-23 season. Accordingly, the MSP of raw jute has been fixed at Rs 4750 per quintal for 2022-23 season with an increase of Rs 250 over the previous year. “This would ensure a return of 60.53 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production. The announced MSP of raw jute for 2022-23 season is in line with the principle of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times all India weighted average cost of production as announced by the Government in the Budget 2018-19,” the official statement said. The Jute Corporation of India (JCI) will continue as central government nodal agency to undertake Price Support Operations and the losses incurred, if any, in such operations, will be fully reimbursed by the government. NK ING