UDAIPUR/PALATANA, October 16 (TIWN): Due to some leakage found in the Heat Recovery Steam Generator(HRSG) the unit-I of OTPC will go for a complete shutdown from Thursday midnight, confirmed a top level OTPC engineer. He said," The boiler in HRSG that generates steam is now having some leakage and it requires to be attended soon. As such, experts of BHEL will address these problems. For this, the Unit-I will have to be put on 'Complete Shutdown. Once it is solved the plant will again start production . But it will take at least 7 days. And as per the current schedule the production will resume from the midnight of 22nd October."

  It means the state will face acute power crisis for next 7 days. This has also given serious cause of concern for the organizers of Diwali Festival to be held in MataBari from 23rd and 24th October. A top level official of TSECL, Udaipur Division told TIWN," We are really shocked at this especially when preparations in MataBari are in full swing. Our workers are now in 24×7 shift work. However, we will take this matter to the higher officials of TSECL."

     MataBari Diawli festival committee Chairman Madhab Saha told TIWN over phone on Thursday morning," I don't have any information about it and thanks to TRIPURAINFOWAY for providing the information. I will request Power Minister Manik Dey so that initiatives can be taken to postpone the shutdown for ten days considering the importance of Diwali festival. As an alternative we too have options to use power coming from outside. We are keeping all options open so that both the lines that are used to bring power from outside can be connected with the main power unit installed for Diwali festival." It is to be mentioned that TRIPURAINFOWAY is Tripura's first online media which has done Live Webcast of Matabari Festival in 2013.

     Meanwhile, the trial run of Unit-II won't start until the Seal Oil Pump Motor is replaced. An OTPC engineer said," Seal Oil Pump Motor has been despatched from BHEL's Hyderabad unit and it will reach Palatana with in a week. Once it is replaced, Trial Run too will begin. Now power generation from Unit-II  in October is most unlikely."  

     TIWN had a telephonic chat with CMD Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd(TSECL) S K Roy and he too said that the shut in Palatana will start from 17th October midnight. S K Roy said," We are hopeful that the technical problems in HRSG will be solved before Diwali festival. We have more than seven days left. We are discussing on this issue. However, if production in Palatana does not resume with in seven days, we will have to arrange power from outside to provide uninterrupted power supply during Diwali Festival." All on a sudden this shutdown has created serious reasons for concern especially in Diwali Festival Committee. Though two day long Diwali festival will begin from 23rd October , practically it will begin from 20th October as Tripura Sundari Dance & Music Festival will commence from that date. In this programme renowned artists from different parts India as well as Tripura will perform.