Telangana: Urea production resumes at RFCL after more than a week
Hyderabad, July 19
Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited in Telangana's Peddapalli district resumed production after remaining closed for more than a week following a leakage in its ammonia pipeline and technical problems.
With the plant reopening after repairs, urea production has resumed at the public sector company.
Officials said they had taken all measures to ensure that technical problems do not recur.
They said they were making every effort to step up the production to meet the urea demand for the current agricultural season.
The urea production came to a halt on July 9 following the shutdown of all units of the plant due to a leakage, which reportedly occurred due to technical problems.
As the problem could not be rectified, the plant was shut down. The officials had said that it might take at least one week to resume production.
The shutdown has brought to a halt fertiliser supply to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and five other states, raising concern over supply to farmers during the ongoing Kharif crop season.
This was the second time this year that an ammonia leak has forced the RFCL plant's shutdown. The plant was closed for a week in March.
The plant has a capacity of 3,850 tonnes per day, but it had been operating at 50 per cent capacity for some time due to gas shortages due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
As RFCL is the only source for Telangana, the state government has been demanding that the Centre allocate the entire urea output from the plant to Telangana.
Peddapalli MP Gadam Vamsi has accused the Centre of neglecting RFCL.
He has also demanded relocating the corporate office of RFCL from Noida (Uttar Pradesh) to Ramagundam. He stated that despite Ramagundam being the core operational base with the majority of manpower and technical workforce stationed at Ramagundam, the proposal to shift the corporate office has been deferred.
The Congress MP said that Telangana, and particularly Ramagundam, is being denied its rightful administrative and institutional share, even when the region contributes significantly to operations.
— IANS
Reader Comments
I agree with MP Gadam Vamsi on moving the corporate office to Ramagundam. Why should the headquarters be in Noida when 90% of the work happens here? Typical central apathy towards Telangana. First irrigation projects, now fertilisers. Something needs to change.
Operating at 50% capacity due to gas shortages from Middle East crisis shows how global events hit us locally. But why no proactive planning? We knew about the conflict for months. The government should have arranged alternative supplies. Farmers cannot wait for diplomacy lessons.
Great news that repairs are done quickly. But I worry about the ammonia leaks - these are serious safety issues. In March and again in July? Workers must be concerned. RFCL needs to invest in better maintenance, not just patchwork fixes. Hope they take long-term measures now.
Global gas shortages hitting Indian fertiliser production is alarming. We need to diversify our energy sources and build strategic reserves. This crisis shows our dependence on Middle East gas is a vulnerability. Kudos to the engineers who fixed the plant quickly, but the root cause is broader.
My cousin is a farmer in Warangal and he was really stressed last week. Waiting for urea supplies is not an option during kharif. I hope the plant now runs at full capacity. The demand for Telangana to get full output from RFCL is logical - why should our urea go to other states when we need it most?
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