“We are in the process of reviving ailing plants, restart closed units, expand existing projects and build new ones,” Pal said in an interview in New Delhi, Times of India reported on Tuesday.
“The target is to wipe out urea imports completely by 2022," he added.
India's annual demand of urea is about 30 million tons, while the domestic production is around 22 million tons.
The country imported more than a quarter of what it consumed from Iran, Oman, and China.
Increasing local supplies of the nitrogen fertilizer would help shield Indian farmers against global price fluctuations and limit government subsidies, allowing for greater spending to spur the rural economy.