Tripura is facing serious power crisis due to drop of supply from within state and other north-eastern states. Life and business has been largely affected due to power cuts enforced for hours every day.
Officials of the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) informed that the current situation was offshoot of lesser transmission of power from different hydel and thermal projects in neighbouring states. “The supply came down to half from regular 106MW the state used to get daily from outside”, an official said on Thursday.
Tripura power minister Manik Dey earlier said that efforts were being made to get rid of crisis. He also urged people to bear with the government to cope with the present situation and normalise electricity supply.
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Condition further worsened after state’s only hydel power project at Dambur in south Tripura stopped with mere 9MW production as a result of drop in water level at the reservoir owing to dry spell. State’s own gas based power plants at Rukhia and Boromura however functioning normally.
The state is getting its small share from 84MW gas based power plant at Ramchandranagar in west Tripura, but all put together fails to meet demand of 240MW at peak hour. “We cannot claim more power from the plant as it is also committed to a few neighbouring states”, the TSECL official stated.
Tripura is set to become self sufficient in electricity sector after two ambitious plants at Palatana in south Tripura and Monarchak in west Tripura are commissioned by end of this year. ONGC is major shareholder of Palatana while the Monarchak is a project of the NEEPCO.
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ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva paid a visit to Palatana on Wednesday to oversee the project currently on a trial run. He hoped that the first unit would become functional in June next.
The realities surrounding acute power shortage failed to satisfy opposition parties. Tripura Pragatishil Gramin Congress (TPGC) staged demonstrations outside office of TSECL in Agartala and held protest rally in some places.
“Government has completely failed to tackle the situation”, Subal Bhowmik, who resigned from Congress to float TPGC, alleged. He questioned why only common people have to suffer as residence of ministers and top officials spared from load shadings.