HURL unit at Sindri stares at disinvestment

Dhanbad: The promoters of the Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan ltd. (HURL), which includes the Coal India Limited (CIL), the NTPC, the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC), the Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI), and the Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation (HFC) have been directed to infuse fresh equity worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore to meet the additional expenditure for completion of the projects. However, reports reaching here from Delhi suggest that the Centre will opt for disinvestment after the 2024 general elections.
Though PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the newly constructed fertiliser unit of HURL at Sindri next month, talks of disinvestment of Sindri, Gorakhpur, and Barauni units of HURL have started doing the rounds in the fertiliser sector.
HURL MD S P Mohanty visited Sindri on April 8 to take a stock of the ground realities and prepare for the PM’s proposed visit.
Sources said the ministry of power and coal have granted in-principle approval for the disinvestment of HURL. The board of directors of the NTPC, the IOC, and the CIL have approved the proposal of privatisation and the board of HURL is preparing a joint memorandum for submission to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Monetisation (DIPAM).
HURL, a special purpose vehicle floated by the CIL, the IOC, and the NTPC, was incorporated in 2016 to revive the closed fertiliser units at Sindri, Gorakhpur, and Barauni at an estimated cost of Rs 6,000 crore each. The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the Sindri unit on May 25, 2018 and the construction work was likely to be completed within a period of three years. However, all the projects got delayed due to Covid among other reasons which resulted in heavy cost escalation. Sources said the cost of each unit has touched nearly Rs 8,130 crore, which comes to nearly 35 per cent additional of the estimated cost.
The senior vice-president of HURL (Sindri project), Dipten Roy, confirmed the development but said the disinvestment of the fertiliser units seems to be a difficult proposition at the moment as the prospective buyer will have to invest around Rs 10,000 crore for each of the units.