A parliamentary panel, led by TMC MP Kirti Azad, has recommended the government to revive three closed urea plants out of which two (Durgapur and Haldia) are located in West Bengal, which is scheduled to go to poll in March-April next year, to meet the future demand which is estimated to rise by 56 lakh tonnes (lt) in next 10 years.
However, the government has informed the panel that any decision on revival of these three units, including the one at Korba in Chhattisgarh, will depend on demand-supply gap after operationalisation of five revived plants (out of which Ramagundam, Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni have already been commissioned while work is going on at Talcher unit).
Referring to the government’s projection that urea demand is set to increase to 444 lt by 2035-36 from 388 lt in 2024-25, the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers in its report, tabled in Parliament on December 1, has said that there is need for urgency to revive the closed plants.
“With a view to enhance the Urea production in the country and achieve self-reliance in its production, the Committee strongly recommends for taking timely effective policy initiatives to facilitate early revival of Durgapur and Haldia units of HFCL and Korba unit of FCIL by leveraging their strategic locations and existing infrastructure, and utilising the coal-gasification route, which would reduce the demand supply gap of urea,” it said.
According to the report, the government said that in 2024-25 India’s fertiliser consumption crossed 700 lt, for the first time. Further, out of that 708 lt, about 388 lt is only urea whereas DAP (96 lt), MOP (22 lt), NPK (150 lt) and SSP (52 lt) put together were another 320 lt. In terms of share of major nutrients in he consumption, Nitrogen had 221.5 lt, Phosphate 83.9 lt and Potash 23.80 lt.
As farmers have been complaining about inadequate availability of urea, the report shows that its import dropped to 56.47 lt in 2024-25 from a record 98.28 lt in 2020-21.
There are 33 urea manufacturing units — 9 PSUs (60.69 lt), 6 cooperatives (54.19 lt), 4 joint ventures (50.80 lt) and 14 in private sector (103.72 lt) — in the country with an annual production capacity of 269.40 lt. But, as these factories produce higher than capacity, the urea output was about 306.67 lt in 2024-25.
The Cabinet in March 2025 approved to set up a new brownfield ammonia-urea complex of 12.7 lt urea capacity in Assam through a Joint Venture (JV). The government also informed the panel that one new urea plant with 12.70 lt capacity needs about Rs 10,000 crore investment where “the longevity of that plant is 35-40 years. (Investors) they will have to take a lot of decisions in terms of adjusting to reality.”
As urea is presently sold to farmers at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 266 per bag (of 45 kg).
The panel has also urged the Department of Fertilizers “to constitute a task force to chalk out a time bound targeted strategy with required budgetary support so as to enhance domestic urea production through proactive implementation and promotion of the New Investment Policy (NIP)–2012 and its amendments; New Urea Policy, 2015 and also expand production capacity of P&K fertilizers through fiscal and tax incentives for setting up of new units and securing long term agreements with the resource rich countries to ensure secure supply chain, at most competitive rates.”
Published on December 2, 2025
