Nagpur.
Chandrapur MP and Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Hansraj Ahir made a breakthrough announcement while he was in Nagpur Saturday morning. He said that the government is planning to set up a pilot project to produce urea from coal in Odisha soon.
Ahir’s point of contention is that when China can produce urea from coal, from where India imports urea, it can be done back home too.
“We have a lot of coal reserves. So, we can also produce gas from coal and convert it further to urea. A team of officials is going to visit China to study the process. After this, we are planning to start a pilot project in Odisha,” he said.
Emphasising that his Ministry has an important role to play in the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, Ahir said it had two specific targets: reduction of imports of fertilisers and chemicals and reduction of subsidy in fertiliser sector.
Ahir also said the government is making a comprehensive list of life-saving medicines and is planning to subsidise some high-cost medicines for cardiac diseases.
The government was also planning to start generic medical shops. Three thousand such shops would be set up in the first phase and a meeting of state officials had been scheduled in this regard for January 12, he said.
