“This is going to be the biggest fertilizer factory in the country and I would say it’ll be a fully environment-friendly one,” Industries Secretary Md. Abdul Halim told UNB adding that necessary procedures on environmental front are completed.
The new project is being implemented at the place of the existing two fertilizer factories -- Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd. (UFFL) and Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd. (PUFFL) which are very old.
As per the government plan, the new factory will be named as Ghorasal Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory, the biggest fertilizer project in Bangladesh, and the production capacity per day will be about three times higher than that of the existing two fertilizer factories.
Officials said the new fertilizer factory, once implemented, will be a “modern, sophisticated, energy efficient and green” fertilizer factory in the country.
It will help the country reduce the import of urea fertilizer and save hard-earned foreign currency, they said.
Explaining further the environmental issues, the officials said it is the first fertilizer 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 fertilizer will be increased (about 10pc ) by using the captured CO2.
An official at the Industries Ministry said the total cost of the project has been estimated at Tk 10,460.91 crore or USD$ 1,245.35 million.
Of the total cost, the government of Bangladesh will bear Tk 1,844.19 crore or USD$ 219.55 million while the rest of the amount Tk 8,616.72 crore or USD$ 1,025.80 million will come as commercial loan.
The loan agreement signing for Ghorasal Polash Urea Fertilizer Project (GPUFP) is scheduled to be signed in the city on Sunday evening.
The loan deal will be signed among Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) under the Ministry of Industries, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFG Ltd (MUFG) and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (HSBC), another senior official told UNB.
The relevant parties will be signing the loan agreement for the ‘Bidder Financing’ portion of Tk 8,616.72 crore or USD$ 1,025.80 million.
Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, State Minister for Industries Kamal Ahmed Mojumder and Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Naoki Ito will attend the signing ceremony to be held in the evening.
Responding to a question, the Industries Secretary said many 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.
The new project is expected to create employment opportunity for around one thousand persons directly, according to the Industries Ministry.
The officials said it will also help bring huge benefits indirectly for the economy alongside saving of yearly approximate Tk 1,075.39 crore in foreign currency.
The Industries Ministry officials said the new fertilizer factory will ensure the availability of urea fertilizer to the farmer at a lower cost and meet up the growing urea fertilizer demand in the country and thereby ensuring food security of the country.
As the process licensors of the ongoing project are from Denmark, Italy, Germany and Japan, the government hoped this project will be implemented through maintaining the highest standard and using world-class environment-friendly green technologies.