The ambitious combined cycle electric power project at Monarchak in west Triprua will be commissioned in December next. A senior official of North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) said most of turbines and heavy machineries have reached the state for the gas based 101MW plant.
“Except few large parts of equipments have arrived. We expect to conduct the trial run in June”, head of project S. R. Biswas said on Wednesday. He said gas turbine weighting 98 tonne along with heavy machineries like transformer and condenser are making journey to Monarchak.
Tripura government has worked out an arrangement with the NEEPCO to avail entire stock of power from Monarchak plant. The State also has a sizeable share in 720 MW thermal electricity project at Palatana in south Tripura now running on trial basis.
State Chief Minister Manik Sarkar earlier said the government would explore possibility to export electricity to Bangladesh after meeting demand within the state. He made the assurance during visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in January last year.
“It would be a very good idea if state transmits surplus power to Bangladesh”, Mr Biswas said adding but he was unaware of any move on the issue.
Monarchak project earlier ran into rough weather after ONGC had expressed inability to supply gas citing consumption at Palatana in which it is principle partner. ONGC has now assured to supply gas to Monarhcak. S. R. Biswas however said work at ONGC end is a bit slow and should be expedited.
NEEPCO officials said of 101 MW, 63 MW would be generated by gas turbine and 38 MW by steam turbines. Infrastructure and requisite facilities are already in place in Monarchak, they said.
