In order to create project for producing urea and ammonium nitrate at Tachler, Orissa, Mining major Coal India (CIL), Gas Authority of India (GAIL) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) are joining hands.

Nearly 5.5 million tonnes of raw coal for the scheme has been embarked by CIL and once this coal is washed, it will drop to nearly 3.7 million tones with less than 30 per cent ash content. Once this is done, GAIL will require gasifying the fuel to generate urea and ammonium nitrate.

As of now, a sum of nearly Rs 1,500 crore annually is spent by the coal miner for generating about 3.5 lakh tonnes of explosives. In these, the major constituent is nitrate ammonium. Due to this, the project will most probably permit CIL to make notable savings on the explosives front.

Apart from this, the JV is predicted to revive the Talcher unit of the Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI), as the project is expected to undertaken there.

The Alcher unit has other infrastructural advantages including a coal-gasification plant, a heavy water plant and a urea plant already in place, other than from easy access to coal.