New investment policy for fertiliser sector soon: Jena

NEW DELHI: Government will soon unveil an investment policy for the urea sector which would also help revive eight public sector urea factories now lying closed.

"A new investment policy is being worked out. It will be unveiled within a month," Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Fielding a barrage of questions, he made it clear that some of the urea plants lying closed could be re-started once gas linkages are arranged.

"We have asked the Petroleum Ministry for gas. The Cabinet has to prioritise allocation of gas," he said adding that the price of gas was yet to be determined.

To a question, Jena said revenue sharing model was being considered for reviving the urea plant at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre was awaiting response from the state government.

As members continued to raise questions, Speaker Meira Kumar suggested having a half-an-hour discussion on availability of fertilisers in the country.

On complaints from members about non-availability of desired fertilisers, Jena offered to give constituency-wise break up of fertilisers made available across the country.

To a question on revival of Talcher urea plant, the minister said coal gasification route was being considered to revive the plant.