Nellore: IFFCO fertiliser plant set to take off

NELLORE: If efforts of finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy in setting up a multi-crore fertiliser plant of IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Limited) at Racharlapadu village in Kodavaluru mandal materialise, the unemployed youth and farmers of the district stand to benefit a lot from it. Due to abnormal delay in setting up the proposed fertiliser plant, people of the district had almost lost their hopes on it.Their hopes have got revived with the laying of the foundation stone for the Rs. 30 crore pipeline project by Ramanarayana Reddy at Munulapadu village in Butchireddypalem mandal a couple of weeks ago. About 0.5 tmc of water will be supplied to the IFFCO plant from Kanigiri reservoir through the pipeline.Speaking on the occasion, the finance minister had admitted that there was delay in grounding the works of the IFFCO plant.Now, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have evinced keen interest in setting up the plant in Nellore district.Union petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy has also agreed to release funds for the plant. It was due to the efforts of late Pellakuru Ramachandra Reddy, former IFFCO chairman, who was a close associate of former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, it was proposed to set up the fertiliser plant with an annual capacity of one million tonnes in Nellore district in 1996.The proposal was put on back burner after the demise of Ramachandra Reddy.The shortage of naphtha, the main raw material for fertiliser production, has further delayed the setting up of the plant.IFFCO had acquired 2,777 acres of land long ago for the project by paying a compensation of Rs. 50,000 per acre.Subsequently, the compensation was increased to Rs. 1.5 lakh per acre after Alluru MLA Jakka Venkaiah filed a petition in the court contending that the price fixed by IFFCO was inadequate. Due to abnormal delay in setting up the plant, it was felt that IFFCO had abandoned the project. Thanks to the efforts of Ramanarayana Reddy and Union minister of state for textiles Panabaka Lakshmi, the project is set to be grounded now. Speaking to Express, Ramanarayana Reddy said the fertiliser project would be grounded at the earliest as the Union government had come forward to provide funds for it. “I am quite confident that the IFFCO fertiliser project will take off soon,” he said.