KATHMANDU: Three foreign companies have offered to invest in setting up a chemical fertilizer plant in Nepal.

The Nepal Investment Board said companies from neighboring India, United Kingdom and Germany submitted proposals to open fertilizer plants.

Investment Board’s Information Office Ramesh Adhikari said that the offers came as the government was studying the investment model to open a fertilizer plant in the country.

Germany’s Deutsche Industrieanlagen GmbH (DIAG), an Indian company and a British company have offered to invest in the fertilizer factory, Dhakal informed.

The Board also said a committee was formed to analyze the foreign proposals to invest in setting up a fertilizer plant in Nepal.

After the acute shortage of chemical fertilizers, a cabinet meeting during CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli’s government had formed a high-level committee to study setting up a fertilizer plant in the country.

Ministers of Industry and Agriculture were members of the committee formed under the coordination of the then Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel. The task force had proposed three types of investment models, adding that it would cost about one trillion rupees to set up a chemical fertilizer plant in the country. The model recommended then proposed 40 percent investment from private sector, 40 percent foreign investment and the government bearing remaining 20 percent in the plant.

The government is carrying preliminary study to set up a fertilizer plant to end annual fertilizer crisis in the country.