State-run fertiliser major Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC) initiated work for its new manufacturing facility for phosphatic fertilisers at Sikka in Jamnagar on Saturday. The Chairman and Managing Director, S K Nanda, laid the foundation stone for the new plant at Sikka in Jamnagar district, to set up with an investment of Rs 900 crore, the company informed in a statement here.
The new plant is the fourth unit to come up at the company’s manufacturing complex at Sikka with required ancillary facilities such as Bagging Plant and Silos for storage among others.
With the commencement of this new plant, the production capacity for phosphatic fertilisers would increase by 5.44 lakh tonnes a year taking GSFC’s aggregate manufacturing capacity to 12.66 lakh tonnes. Alongside, the company is also setting up silos & storage tanks for ammonia & phosphoric acid, the statement said.
The Sikka complex is spread over in 776 acres land at Motikhavdi in Jamnagar district and engaged in manufacture of Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), Ammonium phosphate sulphate, NPK among others with an aggregate production capacity of 2,520 tonnes per day and 7.22 lakh per year.
GSFC also proposes to undertake dredging operations at Sikka to enable vessels with large capacity to berth at the jetty, facilitating higher volumes of phosphoric acid imports thereby saving on foreign exchange.