Madras Fertilizers plans to set up Rs. 4,500-cr urea facility.

Madras Fertilizers Limited (MFL), which comes under the Ministry of Fertilisers, is planning to set up a new urea plant with an investment of about Rs. 4,500 crore. The company also said it was open to rope in an investor for the proposed plant.

The company also asked the ministry to extend the deadline for converting its existing plant from naphtha to gas.

The company currently has a manufacturing facility near Chennai with a capacity to manufacture 4.87 lakh tonnes of urea per annum.

I Vijayakumar, chairman and managing director, Madras Fertilizers Limited, told Business Standard: 'The government wants us to set up a greenfield facility, which can use gas instead of naphtha to produce urea and this would help the government to cut down the subsidy.'

The ministry has already issued the direction to convert the existing facility to gas before June 30 this year, failing which the government would stop the subsidy.

BS