Ammonia leak forces shutdown of RFCL plant in Peddapalli

RFCL in Peddapalli has been shut down following ammonia pipeline leakages, halting production and raising concerns over urea supply during the Yasangi season. Officials said it may take a week to resume operations after fixing technical issues.

Peddapalli: Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) has been shut down due to leakages in the ammonia pipeline.

The plant was tripped due to leakages in the ammonia pipeline caused by technical problems. As efforts to rectify the problem by the technical team failed, officials shut down all units in the plant. As a result, the production of ammonia has been stalled.

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According to RFCL sources, it would take at least one week to resume production after rectifying the problem.

It may be recalled that the plant had been operating at 50 per cent capacity for some time due to gas shortages following the Iran and Israel war. Now, the entire plant has been shut down.

This is expected to impact the supply of urea to farmers in the present Yasangi season.

Since RFCL is the only source for Telangana, the State government mounted pressure on the Centre for enhancement of gas supply. The Union government has also increased the supply.

While the plant was operating at 80 per cent capacity, the leakage issue came to the fore. Within four days, 3,100 tonnes of urea was produced as against its capacity of 3,850 tonnes per day.

The Central government instructed RFCL authorities to supply 53,000 tonnes to the State in March. Of that, 23,000 tonnes have already been supplied. It was decided to supply another 15,000 tonnes in one week, but in vain.

In the 2025-26 financial year, production at the plant had been stalled for 112 days due to technical problems. When it resumed after rectifying technical issues, the Iran and Israel war slowed down production.

A total of 3.77 lakh tonnes of urea has been supplied to the State so far in this financial year. While 1.06 lakh tonnes were supplied from April to August last year, 2.7 lakh tonnes were supplied from October to March in this season.

Though RFCL officials fixed a target to produce 1.05 lakh tonnes of urea, it did not materialise due to the war. Only 59,000 tonnes were produced by March 23.