Bhubaneswar: Wuhuan Engineering Co. Ltd, a Chinese company, has been awarded the contract for revival of Talcher Fertilizer Plant in Odisha's Angul district.

The company had emerged as the lowest bidder for the project which will become India’s first coal gasification based urea production facility.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who attended the contract awarding ceremony, said the project is a path breaking step towards establishing new benchmarks of development for Odisha and eastern India.

The Talcher Fertilizer Plant through coal gasification will utilise indigenous coal in a mix of petcoke for the production of urea and thus save valuable foreign exchange by reducing LNG imports for production of urea and fertilizers, he said.

Once operational, the plant will produce 1.27 MMTPA of urea in an environment-friendly way. Revived with an estimated cost of Rs 13000 crore, the project will propel agricultural growth in Odisha, the minister said.