Now, KRIBHCO to set up unit at Krishnapatnam Port

Nellore: Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), a leading cooperative organisation in fertilizer, which had proposed to set up a green field unit for producing NPK fertilisers at Sarvepalli in the district, is planning to shift its location from the proposed place to inside Krishnapatnam Port.

The decision for shifting the location is taken keeping in view of transport convenience, sops from the government, VAT exemption, assurance for uninterrupted water and power supply. In fact, there were many court cases regarding laying of pipelines via agriculture lands.

The management finally decided to set up its premises at the port. Kribhco has only one production unit in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh. It proposed the new plant in Krishnapatnam which is expected to be completed in next three or four years.

The APIIC had allocated 286 acres of land near Krishnapatnam port and The Cooperative earlier announced a joint venture with Moroccan firm OCP Group to set up a plant in the district with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. OCP is the largest phosphate producer in the world and the Cooperative inked pact with the company for support for the unit in South India which would be the company's first non-urea plant in the country.

As planned, the works had to be started from April 2017 and commercial production from April 2019. But, due to problems for laying pipeline between the site place (at Sarvepalli) and the Krishnapatnam Port, the process was inordinately delayed.

At one stage, the management thought of shifting the unit to some other place or state. But finally, selected Port premises for the unit. Kribhco gets phosphoric acid from OCP while ammonia would be imported from the Middle East. As per the plan, there will be two plants with a capacity of 1,650 MT each that comes to a total of 12 lakh MT of production annually.

The proposed NPK complex manufacturing plant uses ammonia, MOP, phosphoric acid, and sulphuric acid as main raw materials for producing various grades of NPK complex fertilizers.

Liquid ammonia and other raw material have to be supplied to the production unit through pipelines from the Port for preparing granules. But, the farmers started raising objections for laying of the pipeline.

“There would be no problem with the new unit inside the Port premises and also can reduce costs. So, we are taking up the works in the Port,” said an official connected to the Cooperative.