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New Delhi, Oct. 31 Public sector fertiliser companies — National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (RCFL) — along with the second largest fertiliser cooperative in the country Krishak Bharti Cooperative Ltd (Kribhco) will jointly revive the closed Barauni unit of Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd (HFCL).

For this, a special purpose vehicle will be floated jointly by NFL, RCFL and Kribhco. The SPV would submit a fully tied-up revival scheme for the unit, after which it would take over the unit and set up a new plant in the same location.

The decision to revive HFCL’s Barauni unit through the SPV route was approved by the Cabinet here on Friday.

The Cabinet also agreed ‘in principle’ to consider waiving off outstanding Central Government loans and interests in order to make the unit viable.

The move follows earlier announcements made by the Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, that all the eight closed units of HFCL and Fertiliser Corporation of India will be revived by other profitable public sector fertiliser manufacturers.

To facilitate the revival of the remaining seven units, the Cabinet approved setting up of an Empowered Committee of Secretaries with the mandate to evaluate all options for revival of the other seven closed units.

The committee will give its recommendations along with unit-specific revival model separately for each unit to the Department of Fertilisers.

The committee will be chaired by the Fertiliser Secretary with the Secretaries in the Departments of Expenditure, Disinvestments, Planning Commissions, Public Sector Enterprises and the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas as its members.

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