Barauni plant of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan (HURL) has commenced urea production. The country has achieved another milestone by setting up a new ammonia urea plant at Barauni which started urea production on Tuesday. 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 (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation (HFCL) in order to achieve self-sufficiency in urea sector. Revival of closed units of FCIL and HFCL had been on priority agenda of the Government to augment the availability of domestically produced urea. Government-mandated Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan (HURL) to 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 (IOCL) and FCIL/HFCL mandated to revive Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar) 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. It is one of the largest fertiliser manufacturing units of India. The project will not only improve the availability of fertilisers to farmers but also give a boost to the economy in the region including the development of infrastructures like roads, railways and ancillary industry besides ensuring food security to the nation.
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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. It also has India’s First Air Operated Bullet Proof Rubber Dam of 65 mtrs in length and 2 mtrs in height. There is no offsite wastewater disposal in these plants. The systems are operated by highly motivated, dedicated, well-trained operators. 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. Apart from urea supply, the project will also help develop small and medium-scale industries and vendors around the manufacturing unit. 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 fertiliser, saving in foreign exchange out due to reduced import. It may be noted that the Gorakhpur plant of HURL was already commissioned in Dec 2021 and Sindri plant likely to be commissioned shortly.
