New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the much-awaited fertiliser factory in Gorakhpur on Tuesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s nearly two decades of relentless struggle as a member of parliament from the constituency for farmers’ well-being, will come to fruition.
Built at the cost of Rs 8603 crore on 600 acres, the fertiliser factory will provide direct and indirect employment to 20,000 people while bringing happiness to scores of farmers residing in the district and the entire Purvanchal region and expanding the green cover with neem coated urea, said an official statement.
The factory, set up and to be operated by Hindustan Fertilizers and Rasayan Limited (HURL), will also ensure availability of adequate fertilisers to Uttar Pradesh and other border states while reducing dependence on imports. HURL is a joint venture in which Coal India Limited, NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation are the lead promoters while Fertiliser Corporation of India Limited and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Limited are partners.
The production capacity of the fertiliser plant is 3850 metric tonnes per day and 12.7 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers per annum. The fertiliser factory of Gorakhpur is a dream project of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
It is worth mentioning here that as an MP from Gorakhpur from 1998 till March 2017, there was not a single session, when CM Yogi did not raise the issue of reopening the factory of the Fertiliser Corporation of India, which was closed in 1990 due to an accident, or establishing a new fertiliser factory in its place in Gorakhpur, in the lower house.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid attention to Yogi’s strong demand and laid the the foundation stone for the fertiliser factory on July 22, 2016. Subsequently as CM, Yogi Adityanath accelerated the construction of the factory despite Covid pandemic.
Special rubber, which is not affected by bullets, is also being manufactured through a special technology from South Korea on factory premises at the cost of Rs 30 crore.
The factory will facilitate large-scale supply of neem coated urea to eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as states neighbouring Bihar and UP. Farmers of Nepal will also benefit from the fertilser plant.
The Preling Tower built at Gorakhpur Fertilizer Factory is the tallest in the world, being twice the height of Qutub Minar. The quality of the manure coming from the Preling Tower will be the best, increasing the fertility of soil.
One of the specialties of the project is that the youths of Purvanchal constitute 30 percent of the employees of the factory and girls outnumber boys among employees.
The credit for setting up the factory largely goes to CM Yogi. On March 4, the then Union Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals DV Sadananda Gowda, who came to inspect the Gorakhpur fertiliser factory, had said that Yogi Adityanath as an MP had consistently pursued the goal of setting up the fertiliser factory in Gorakhpur. In the month of October, the present Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had also praised Chief Minister Yogi in this regard.
