As Dhanbad gears up to vote on May 12, residents of Sindri, located around 25km from the district headquarters, wish that the town gets back its lost glory with the establishment of Rs 6,500-crore factory of Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd (HURL).
HURL is a joint venture of NTPC (30 per cent), Coal India Ltd (30 per cent), Indian Oil (30 per cent) and Fertilizer Corporation of India (10 per cent).
“We used to spend long hours loitering in the corridors of Kalyan Kendra (meant for FCI workers) playing cards and carom in the afternoon. It used to remain abuzz with sporting activities ranging from badminton and basketball to table tennis and lawn tennis . Everything is lost now,” Sindri resident Raja Khan (27), who works in Dubai as a contractual safety officer, said.
Khan has arrived from Dubai to cast his vote.
Reminiscing about the town’s beauty, he said, “Even a fool would not have left such a beautiful place with so much of greenery around. But after the closure of the fertiliser factory in 2002, everybody became jobless. We had to leave the town to make both ends meet,” Khan added.
Deepak Kumar Dipu, a member of Sindri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recalled how the picturesque Priyadarshini lakes — a network of seven interconnected water bodies — complete with boating and fishing facilities and surrounded by fruit orchards used to attract tourists and picnickers.
“Four of those seven lakes have dried up. We also used to get water five times a day for three hours and electricity was supplied almost 20 hours per day. Streets were swept and garbage was collected twice every day,” Dipu said.
A retired FCI employee Sewa Singh said medical emergencies forced residents had to rush to Dhanbad, 25km away, while the 205-bed hospital, set up in 1952, had been lying defunct since 2003.
“We are thankful to the Modi government for taking the bold decision to establish the factory, which is expected to revive the town’s lost glory to some extent,” he said.
Additional general manager of Sindri unit of HURL M.C. Karan said things were moving on the right track and production was likely to start by May 2021 if everything went well.
“At present, work on setting up the urea, ammonia and power plants in addition to a water filtration plant and a gas metering plant was underway,” he said.
The foundation stone for the factory, comprising a 3,850-tonnes-per-day ammonia plant, 2,220-tonnes-per-day urea plant and a captive power plant of 30MW, was laid by Modi on June 25, 2018.
The natural gas-based factory is being set up on 751 acres belonging to FCI. Laying of pipeline for supply of gas is being carried out by Gail (India) Ltd.
