more-in The temporary shut down of the urea manufacturing unit of the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers (MCF) Ltd. for annual maintenance will not affect the availability of urea for kharif season. Sufficient stock of urea is available, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar has said. The MCF, the lone company in the State to manufacture urea, ammonium bi-carbonate and di-ammonium phosphate, shut down its unit on March 3. Mr. Ananth Kumar told presspersons here on Saturday that the Union government has taken enough precaution to stock urea needed for the kharif season. While the State has stock of one lakh tonnes of urea, a total of 20 lakh tonnes was available in different States. The available stock of urea was much more than the requirement of farmers during the season, he said. Mr. Ananth Kumar said the work of laying re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas pipeline between Kochi and Mangaluru has been stuck for want of right of way in Mallapuram. The issue was being pursued, he said. MCF is one among the naphta-fed fertilizer units that was asked by the Union government to switch over to gas-fed unit for getting subsidy. Though MCF modernised the plant to gas-fed unit, it was unable to make it operational because of delay in commissioning of the LPG pipeline. Hence, the Union government made an exception for MCF and allowed subsidy for naphta-fed production of fertilizers.

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