GAIL, RCF plan 1.27 million t/y urea plant

India’s GAIL (India) Limited and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly establish a gas-based urea plant in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, the state-owned gas transporter said in a stock-exchange filing on 29 July. The proposed facility will have capacity of 1.27 million t/y and will be built along GAIL’s Mumbai–Nagpur–Jharsuguda Natural Gas Pipeline (MNJPL). The two companies will develop the project through a Special Purpose Vehicle.

The GAIL–RCF plant is the first project to be announced under India’s National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 (NIPU-2026), approved by the Union Cabinet on 15 July, and its 1.27 million t/y capacity matches the standard plant size envisaged under the policy. As we reported in July, NIPU-2026 aims to add 10 million t/y of new domestic urea capacity through 8–9 new gas-based plants, part of a broader fertilizer security package designed to close the gap between India’s domestic urea output — 29.33 million tonnes in 2025-26 — and consumption of about 40 million t/y.