Its general manager BK Jha told a visiting UNI correspondent that the chemical plant located in an area of about 140 hectares of land area had stopped its operation following resource crunch.

He said production in the plant had to be stopped because of the cash loss it was suffering. The company, which was having a cash loss, could be revived profitably with a modest investment of nearly Rs 300 crore, he observed.

Jha said the plant had very good infrastructural facilities including workshops, training centres, schools, club and hospital. He said though they had a 16 mega watt power plant yet frequent disruption in the power supplies had led to the present mess.

He said lot of thermal shocks had created the basic problem for the unit which has about 1,300 workforce, including nearly three hundred officers. But one good point was that the employees and the officers were receiving their salary though there was no wage revision for them since 1987 compared to their counterparts in other public sector undertakings,he added . The GM said mainly the power constraint had been the main bottleneck for its sustained production and the major equipment could not bear lots of thermal shocks.

Frequent thermal shock had become unbearable for the equipment and the plant had to pay a heavy price for it, he said adding that these equipment consume huge electricity. He stated that the government had earlier reduced its capacity because of essentially power shortage to 1.84 lakh tonne urea from 3.30 lakh tonne and in respect of ammonia production had been brought down to 1.19 lakh tonne from the 1.98 lakh tonne.

Jha pointed out they would have to change the ammonia and urea plants and felt that a modest Rs 300 crore investment on the present plant could turn the unit viable and could help improve the socio-economic condition of the mainly agricultural belt of this backward state.

The fertiliser plant's general manager said production had been stopped since January last year. The plant, he emphasised, was in good shape and could be revived by investing around Rs 300 crore adding that such investment would make the unit as good as a new project which would otherwise cost nearly Rs 1,500 crore.

Jha said they had enough land even to house a new plant adding that the present set up could be revived profitably. The plant could be revived within 15 months time,if such scheme was approved,he pointed out. He said the company was in the BIFR and several recommendations had been suggested by two experts committees earlier. They were hopeful that something would be done to revive the project with modest investment.

He maintained that the average life of a chemical plant was ten years and that the present unit was commissioned way back in 1976 and last time it produced was 25,300 tonnes of urea in 1998.

He said that production was stopped since 1999 because of the uneconomic ``cash loss''situation which had forced the authorities to shut down the machines. He said the unit's problem was essentially technical.

Meanwhile, informed sources said that 20 members of parliament from Bihar recently met prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee seeking his intervention in ensuring that the authorities make fresh investment in the plant to resume production of crucial fertilisers.

They said resumption of production at the plant would help improve the socio-economic condition of the area, which is essentially agriculture-oriented.