India-Russia joint venture urea manufacturing project is on track, Russia’s Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said on Friday. Moscow is committed to ensuring uninterrupted supplies of various soil nutrients to the India, he added.
The project, which will be located in Togliatti, Samara, Russia, involves urea manufacturing capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum. The entire quantity of the fertiliser produced will be supplied to India.
“The project is on track for implementation, we will maintain supplies of fertilisers to India,” Alipov said at the Indian Express Idea Exchange programme.
An official associated with the project said that the final draft of the pre-feasibility report prepared by the state-owned Projects & Development India (PDI) is ready, and is being evaluated by the JV partners. “The construction of the first plant is likely to commence from October,” the official said, adding that production might start in the subsequent two years.
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Financial Breakdown
The project entails investments of around R 20,000 crore between Russian firm Uralchem and India’s Indian Potash (IP), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) and National Fertilisers (NF).
Stating that fertiliser supplies (urea, potash and other variants) is a substantial part of economic cooperation between two countries, Alipov said Russia, which supplies one fifth of India’s soil nutrients requirement will continue to maintain supplies amidst severe disruption of supplies due to the West Asia war.
A delegation led by PDI, along with representatives from IPL, RCFL, and NFL, recently visited Russia. Earlier, PS Gahlaut, Managing Director, Indian Potash, one of the JV partners in the project, had stated that the construction of plant in Russia will be completed during the next two years.
Uralchem’s investment of around Rs 10,000 crore will be in the ammonia plant. The three state-owned enterprises – IP, RCF, and NF – will invest Rs 4,500 crore, Rs 4,500 crore, and Rs 1,000 crore, respectively for setting up an urea manufacturing unit.
In December, 2025, to ensure long term supply of fertilizers and curb volatility in prices, India and Russian companies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for forming a joint venture for building a large urea manufacturing facility in Russia. The MoU was signed in New Delhi in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Russian JV will be the biggest such joint venture project after Iffco and Kribhco’s ‘Oman India Fertiliser’ which produces around 1.65 MT of urea annually.
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Countering Global Import
The supply challenges in urea emerged as the West Asia conflict hit six key production centres — the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain. These countries account for 30-40% of global urea trade.
An industry official said that overall imports of fertilizers of all varieties in FY26 exceeded 20 MT out of which 10 MT was urea shipments. Out of the total consumption of around 40 MT of urea in FY26, around 30 MT is produced domestically from 32 odd units.
TOPICSagricultureThis article was first uploaded on June nineteen, twenty twenty-six, at fifteen minutes past eight in the night. © The Indian Express (P) Ltd