Bharat Coal Gasification and Chemicals Ltd (BCGCL) has begun ground construction on its ₹25,000 crore coal gasification project in Odisha, with contracts worth about ₹15,000 crore already awarded, the company’s Managing Director Peeyush Kumar said on Thursday.
The joint venture between Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) is developing a commercial-scale coal-to-ammonium nitrate facility. The project is expected to produce approximately 0.66 million tonnes of technical-grade ammonium nitrate annually through coal gasification and chemical conversion.
Kumar announced the construction progress during the 17th Edition of Gasification India 2026, organised by Mission Energy Foundation. “We have started ground construction activities… Most of the tenders have been awarded and construction has started,” he said.
BCGCL was established with CIL holding a 51 per cent stake and BHEL holding the remaining 49 per cent. Of the ₹15,000 crore worth of work awarded so far, ₹10,000 crore has gone to BHEL and ₹5,000 crore to Larsen & Toubro, Kumar said. The remaining project cost includes soft costs such as interest, depreciation and land-related expenses.
The project has been divided into four major packages. BHEL is executing the coal gasification and syngas purification packages, while L&T is responsible for the ammonia synthesis and ammonium nitrate production packages. In the process, coal will first be converted into gas, which will then be purified and converted into ammonia. The ammonia will subsequently be used to produce nitric acid and ammonium nitrate.
The facility is among India’s pioneering commercial-scale projects using domestically developed pressurised fluidised bed gasification technology for chemical production. Its planned output of technical-grade ammonium nitrate places it at the intersection of coal processing, industrial chemicals and infrastructure for sectors that use commercial explosives.
The Odisha project is part of India’s broader National Coal Gasification Mission. The country is targeting 100 million tonnes of coal gasification capacity by 2030, with the stated objective of converting coal into chemicals and reducing import dependence on products including liquefied natural gas, urea, ammonia and methanol.
The move shifts the BCGCL project from planning and contracting into physical execution, although the company has not provided in the supplied announcement a commissioning date or a detailed construction schedule. The project’s next stages will depend on the completion of the remaining tenders and execution of the four major work packages.
The project has received single-window clearance from the high-level clearance authority of the Odisha government. Further updates are expected as the remaining contracts are awarded and construction progresses across the gasification, purification, ammonia and ammonium nitrate units.
