The Jamuna Fertilizer Factory at Sarishabari in Jamalpur has started producing urea again after a shutdown of about eight months caused by the gas shortage. Production began late on Monday night, 5 October, once the plant received gas at sufficient pressure, its officials said, NewsG24 reports.
The factory was shut for 23 months, from January 2024 to November 2025, for lack of gas and a series of mechanical problems. It stopped again on 12 February this year when the gas ran short.
Fazlul Haque, head of the plant's ammonia and utility division, said gas supply resumed on 20 September, but Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company was delivering it at 27 to 28 MMCF of pressure, too little to run production. "For uninterrupted urea production we ideally need 46 MMCF of gas pressure, though fertiliser can be produced at 42 to 43 MMCF," he said.
The plant was built to make 1,700 tonnes a day, but for several years low gas pressure and mechanical faults have held output to about 1,200 to 1,400 tonnes. Fazlul Haque said everything at the factory is now running and they expect to reach that level each day.
Through 1,900 dealers listed with the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), the factory supplies fertiliser to 21 districts including Jamalpur, Sherpur, Mymensingh, Tangail and the north. Officials say that with normal gas the plant makes about Tk 200 crore of fertiliser a month, for a profit of about Tk 60 crore, while even when it is idle it pays about Tk 6 crore in gas bills to keep the machinery running.
Business is returning around the plant. Food-stall owner Binoy Dutta said he had to borrow heavily while it was closed. Truck driver Shamim Mia said he gets 20 to 25 trips a month when the factory runs, against just two or three while it was shut. Morshed Alam Talukder, general secretary of the workers' and employees' union, said staff can return to normal life if production continues.
Source: NewsG24
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