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BSS-20
ECNEC-MEETING
ECNEC approves Taka 10,461 crore urea fertilizer factory in Polash
DHAKA, Oct 9, 2018 (BSS) – The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) today approved a big project to set up a granular urea fertilizer factory at Ghorashal in Polash upazila of Narsingdi district, with an annual production capacity of 9.24 lakh metric tons, involving Taka 10,461 crore in a bid to meet the country’s growing demand for this fertilizer.
The approval came from the 9th ECNEC meeting of the current fiscal year held at the NEC conference room in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing the reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that a total of 20 projects were approved today involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 32,524.90 crore.
“Of the total project cost, Taka 15,494.37 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh, Taka 11,656.27 crore from the organization’s own fund while the rest Taka 5,374.26 crore from project assistance,” he added.
Among the approved 20 projects, 14 are new while six are revised projects.
The planning minister said the ‘Ghorashal Polash Urea Fertilizer Project’ will be implemented by the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) under the Ministry of Industries by June 2022.
Out of the total estimated fertilizer factory project cost of Taka 10,460.91 crore, Taka 1,844.19 crore will come from the government while the rest Taka 8,616.72 crore will come from bidders financing.
The main project objectives include setting up a new granular urea fertilizer factory at Polash adjacent to the existing Ghorashal Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd and Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd under Narsingdi district with a daily production capacity of 2,800 metric tons and annual production capacity of 9,24,000 metric tons.
Besides, the new urea fertilizer factory will also aim at meeting the growing demand of fertilizer to ensure food security in the country side by side ensuring smooth supply of fertilizer to the farmers at an affordable cost.
Once the project is implemented, it will help save foreign currencies through reducing import of fertilizers alongside generating more employment opportunities in the country.
An official at the BCIC told the news agency that the countrywide annual demand of urea fertilizer is in between 26 and 30 lakh metric tons whereas the six fertilizer factories under the BCIC could produce roughly 9-10 lakh metric tons. So, the rest of the deficit (17-20 lakh metric tons) of urea fertilizer is being procured from KAFCO or imported.
Apart from these, most of the machineries of the Ghorashal Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd and Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd have become dilapidated for which the daily production capacity of these two existing fertilizer factories has now come down to 1,050 metric tons.
Under the circumstances, the Ministry of Industries proposed the project and thus got ECNEC approval to set up a modern and high-tech urea fertilizer factory there.
The main project operations include setting up a new fertilizer factory with a daily production capacity of 2,800 metric tons, procuring necessary machineries and equipments, necessary land acquisition and setting up rail track for the factory, construction of roads, residential and non-residential buildings, jetty, godown for preserving fertilizer, and setting up customer metering station.
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