Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), the public sector fertilizer major, is set to launch its new barge in a couple of months reducing the transportation of ammonia by road to a little over 100 tonnes a day.
Ninety per cent of the fabrication works of the new barge being built at the FACT’s Engineering Works division at Palluruthy has been completed. FACT had to stop the transportation of ammonia by water after the District Collector banned it. One of the six tanks of ammonia carried aboard a barge had developed a leak last Friday. The leak was detected near Thykoodam while the barge was moving along Champakkara Canal, creating panic among the people in the area for hours.
The ban will be in force till June 1 before which the company will have to repair the barge and tanks and produce it for a comprehensive safety audit.
At present, the company transports only 192 tonnes of the daily consignment of 500 tonnes of ammonia by water while the remaining 308 tonnes are moved by road. The company now operates only a single barge, which operates one trip a day transporting ammonia in six tanks of 32 tonnes each.
While the barge belongs to a private player, the tanks are owned and maintained by FACT. With the addition of an own barge of equal capacity, the volume that could be transported by water would double, bringing down the pressure of transporting by road considerably.
The company has an ammonia plant at Udyogamandal, which is being operated at 80 per cent of its installed capacity of 900 tonnes a day. Every day, 500 tonnes of ammonia had to be moved to FACT’s Ambalamedu unit for the production of ‘Factampos,’ one of its most sought after products in South India.
Leak aftermath
FACT has to repair its barge and tanks for a safety audit before June 1
It now transports only 192 tonnes of ammonia by water
