Coal India's Rs 1,067 Cr Investment in Talcher Fertilizers

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) State-owned CIL on Friday said it will invest a little over Rs 1,067 crore in Talcher Fertilizers Ltd by way of acquiring shares through rights issue.

Talcher Fertilizers Ltd was incorporated in 2015 as a joint venture company of GAIL (India) Ltd, Coal India Ltd (CIL), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) for revival of FCIL's Fertilizer unit by setting up a coal gasification based fertilizer plant at Talcher, Odisha.

GAIL (India), CIL and RCF each holds 33.333 per cent in Talcher Fertilizers.

In a filing to BSE, CIL said it will acquire 1,06,75,06,771 equity shares at a face value of Rs 10 each. The transaction is likely to be completed by July 9.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal production.

Talcher Fertilizers Ltd project, India's first coal gasification-based ammonia urea plant with a planned capacity of 12.7 lakh tonne per annum, has struggled to maintain its timeline since contracts were awarded to China's Wuhuan Engineering Company Ltd (WECL) in September 2019.

As of February 28, 2025, the overall project completion stands at 65.66 per cent, with Outside Battery Limit (OSBL) packages reaching 77.62 per cent completion, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Anupriya Patel had informed the Lok Sabha.

Several OSBL components, including pipe rack, plant lighting, Boiler-1, raw water treatment plant, and DM water plant, have reached advanced stages of mechanical completion, she said.

The project, initially targeted for commissioning in September 2024, has missed its deadline due to pandemic-related disruptions that began when COVID-19 emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, the headquarters of the main contractor.

Joint venture partners and the TFL board are conducting regular reviews of the project's progress, while TFL maintains frequent video conferences with WECL to resolve pending engineering issues, the minister added.