Dibrugarh: Namrup Fertilizer Shramik Union (NFSU) and Fertilizer Workers' Union Namrup (FWUN) of the Brahamaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd (BVFCL) on Friday demanded the setting up of a fourth plant at Namrup immediately.
NFSU general secretary Tileswar Bora said, "Both Namrup II and Namrup III plants are outdated and have lost their capacity. For years we have been demanding the setting up of Namrup IV plant but because of the government's laid back attitude, the fourth plant has not come up. We demand the setting up of Namrup IV plant immediately."
Bora said the then Union minister for fertilizer and chemicals, Ram Vilas Paswan, during his visit to Namrup on June 26, 2006, had announced that a fourth unit, having an annual production capacity of eight to nine lakh metric tonnes of urea, would be set up at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore.
"More then 11 years have passed since the announcement but till date nothing has come up. In 2014, the Centre had proposed to set up a fourth unit of the fertilizer plant as a joint venture undertaking. It was proposed that Oil India Limited would have a stake of 26 per cent, BVFCL and Assam government would have a share of 11 per cent each and the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers would have the majority stake of 52 per cent. However, the project has failed to take off after all these years," Bora added.
Meanwhile, the production capacity of the two functioning units of the BVFCL has declined by almost half to less than three lakh metric tonnes annually from 5.5 lakh metric tonnes. In 1986, the first unit of the BVFCL, also known as Namrup I, was closed down by the authorities after it became redundant. The existing two units, Namrup II (1976) and Namrup III (1987) have also become outdated and are in need of a complete overhaul.
FWUN general secretary Mugdha Mahanta said, "The state government organised Advantage Assam to bring investments to build industries in the state but it is doing nothing to revive the Namrup plant. We demand that the government prioritise setting up of the fourth plant."
