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The facility – Assam Valley Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited (AVFCCL) – will have an annual urea production capacity of 12.7 lakh metric tonnes, and the project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2030.
On the last day of his two-day visit to Assam, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the plant located at the existing campus of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corp Ltd (BVFCL) here.
In July this year, AVFCCL was included in the name of Dibrugarh. The project was approved by the Union Cabinet in March this year.
AVFCCL is a joint venture of Government of Assam, Oil India, National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), Hindustan Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (HURL) and BVFCL.
Modi reached Assam on Saturday on a two-day tour, during which he Unveiled several projects Worthy 15,600 crore, a few months before the assembly elections next year.
“AVFCCL Namrup Ammonia-Urea Project is being set up as a modern, energy-efficient, world-class fertilizer complex with an annual urea production capacity of 12.7 lakh metric tonnes at an estimated investment of Rs. 10,601 crore,” the company said in a statement.
It said this upcoming facility will play an important role in meeting the fertilizer requirement of Assam, North Eastern Region, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
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“Beyond fertilizer security, the project is expected to act as a major catalyst for industrial growth, employment generation and regional economic growth, creating hundreds of direct jobs and thousands of indirect employment opportunities,” AVFCCL said.
The company also claimed that the foundation stone laying ceremony marks the revival of Namrup’s legacy as the cradle of India’s gas-based fertilizer industry, and will begin a new chapter of growth, sustainability and agricultural prosperity for the entire region.
The ‘bhoomi pujan’ took place in the presence of Assam Governor Laxman Prasad Acharya, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other ministers, MPs, MLAs, senior officials and representatives of stakeholder organizations of the new company.
Government-owned BVFCL is the only urea manufacturing facility in eastern India. The facility began production in January 1969 as a part of Hindustan Fertilizer Corp. Limited (HFCL).
BVFCL was formed in April 2002 after demerging the eponymous unit of HFCL. It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, in which the Government of India holds 100 percent stake.
It is considered to be the first factory of its kind in India to use associated natural gas as the basic raw material for the production of nitrogenous fertiliser.
Officials said the company has played an important role in the development of the North-Eastern region and in providing cheap and locally available domestic natural gas produced urea fertilizer to farmers.
According to the official website of the Department of Fertilizers, the company is now producing neem-coated urea and two organic fertilizers – liquid biofertilizer and vermicompost under the brand name ‘Mukta’.
BVFCL nominally has two operational small capacity ammonia urea units, which were set up in 1976 and 1987.