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India Approves INR375 Billion Scheme to Boost Gasification Projects

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The Indian government on Wednesday approved a 375 billion Indian rupee scheme to promote gasification projects in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on imported fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), urea, ammonia, and methanol.

The move comes amid India's gas imports being impacted by the Iran war and the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East. It aims to increase the conversion of coal into synthetic gas that can be used to produce power, fertilizer, petrochemical among other industrial applications.

The total financial outlay of 375 billion rupees to incentivize new surface coal and lignite gasification projects for the production of syngas and its downstream products, targeting gasification of around 75 million tons of coal and lignite. This is expected to generate 63 billion rupees annually.

The government expects the scheme to attract total investments of up to 3 trillion rupees.

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