30,000 to be employed at Ghorashal-Polash Urea Fertiliser Project

The Ghorashal-Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory will be the largest fertilizer factory in South Asia. It will have an annual production capacity of 9.24 lakh metric tons, which will meet the country’s 35 per cent demand.

After launching of the factory, 30,000 people will be employed at Ghorashal-Polash Urea Fertiliser Project.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the project on November 12 (Sunday).

The industries ministry is working relentlessly to make Bangladesh an industrially developed country. As part of its different time-befitting initiatives, the ministry has constructed the country’s largest fertiliser factory.

The fertiliser factory will play a leading role in meeting the increasing demand for urea fertiliser, ensuring supply of fertiliser to farmers at affordable prices, saving foreign currency by reducing imports and creating employment opportunities, sources said.

As per the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2014, the industries ministry took an initiative to set up a new granular urea fertilizer factory at the place of the existing two fertilizer factories - Urea Fertilizer Factory Limited (UFFL) and Polash Urea Fertilizer Factory Limited (PUFFL) under Narsingdi district. Under the initiative, the ministry took the 'Ghorashal Polash Urea Fertilizer Project'.

Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) has implemented the project at a cost of around Taka 15,500.21 crore.

Out of the total project cost, Taka 4,580.21 crore came from the government exchequer while Taka 10,920 crore from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFG Limited (MUFG) and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) as commercial loan.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited (MHI) and China National Chemical Engineering No 7 Construction Co Ltd (CC-7) jointly constructed the factory.

The per day production capacity of the new factory is about three times higher than that of the earlier two fertiliser factories.