The government is going to increase the production capacity of Ghorasal Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory with an environment-friendly atmosphere. The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 9.24 lakh tonnes, which is three times more than the present capacity. Besides, the project will create around 1,000 new employment opportunity, sources said.
Industries Secretary Md. Abdul Halim said that it will be the biggest fertiliser factory in the country and will be a fully environment-friendly one.
He further said various activities of the project are already going on and they spent Tk 16 crore in the last financial year while the loan agreement is one of the many components.
State-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) going to set up the massive urea fertiliser plant at a cost of $1.3 billion, equivalent to over Tk 11,000 crore, by availing the finance as loan from three foreign financial institutions.
This plant will be replacing two of the BCIC’s oldest plants -- Urea Fertilizer Factory and Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory.
But the consumption of natural gas in the new plant will remain the same because of installation of greener and more fuel-efficient technology. It will also ensure a product of high quality and significantly improve agricultural yields.
The use of chemical fertiliser is rising with increased demand for food production in the country. The use of urea fertiliser alone is the highest.
As per the government plan, the new factory will be named as Ghorasal Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory, the biggest fertiliser project in Bangladesh.
Officials said the new fertiliser factory, once implemented, will be a "modern, sophisticated, energy efficient and green" fertiliser factory in the country. It will help the country reduce the import of urea fertiliser and save hard-earned foreign currency, they said.
Explaining further the environmental issues, the officials said it is the first fertiliser factory in Bangladesh where the environmental pollutant Carbon-Di-Oxide (CO2) will be captured from the primary reformer flue gas and the production of urea fertiliser will be increased (about 10pc ) by using the captured CO2.
As the process licensors of the ongoing project are from Denmark, Italy, Germany and Japan, the government hope this project will be implemented through maintaining the highest standard and using world-class environment-friendly green technologies.
Official said, In FY 2018-19, 5.5 million metric tonnes of fertiliser was used in the country, with urea accounting for around half of it or 2.55 million metric tonnes.
According to project documents, the new factory was expected to have an economic life of 25 years It will also reduce fertiliser import and save foreign currency outflows of over $100 million per year, enabling maintenance of the country’s current stability in foreign exchange reserve.