New Delhi: Work on the Rs 13,277 crore Talcher fertiliser and coal gasification project, which was awarded to China’s Wuhuan Engineering Company Ltd in September 2019, has been halted because of certain technical reasons, people aware of the development said.
The Chinese firm, due to the massive Boycott China protests across India, is unable to immediately mobilise technicians, equipment and site workers, they added, under anonymity. The COVID-19 pandemic and visa issues have also added to their woes.
The project is the first in India to employ coal gasification technology for production of urea. Coal gasification is a process that converts coal into syngas or synthesis gas.
“The project is on. Any call, if at all, will be taken by the competent authority depending on how India-China border talks unfold. Although the project is important to reduce India’s dependence on imported urea, national interest is supreme,” one of the people cited above, who works in an economic ministry, said.
Sindo-Indian tensions shot up after a violent brawl between Chinese and Indian soldiers on June 15 along the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian army personnel an unspecified number of Chinese were killed.
The state-owned Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL) awarded the lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) contract project to Wuhuan Engineering on September 17, 2019 after a global competitive bid. TFL is backed by four state-run companies Gail India Ltd (GAIL), Coal India Ltd (CIL), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL). GAIL, CIL and RCF hold 31.85% equity stake each in the company and the balance 4.45% is held by FCIL.
Email queries sent to TFL, GAIL, CIL, RCF, FCIL, Wuhuan Engineering and the ministries of fertiliser, coal and petroleum did not elicit any response.
One person aware of the ground developments said, “The project had been hit by coronavirus pandemic that started in (the central Chinese city of) Wuhan last year in December, hence slow progress. But you can’t judge the outcome of a match in the first few overs. We are hopeful of completing the project by September 2023.”
An officer in the fertiliser ministry said the project has already been delayed by six months.
The Talcher project will produce 1.27 million tonnes per annum of neem-coated urea through gasification of a mixed feedstock comprising of high ash Indian coal and petcoke. TFL has been allotted northern part of the North Arkhapal mine as a captive asset for meeting its coal requirements and petcoke shall be sourced from the Paradip refinery of Indian Oil.
PNN/Agencies