AGARTALA, December 19 (TIWN): Palatana OTPC power plant - a joint venture of ONGC, Il&FS and the Tripura government is likely to start its unit – II 363.3 megawatt (MW) gas-based unit commercial generation of power from the month of January, 2015.According to the sources from Palatana OTPC, the officials hope to start the commercial operation of the second unit by January next year. According to the OTPC CMD Satyajit Ganguly, the second unit is already synchronized and the officials are conducting certain trials before commercial operation starts. The first unit of 363.3MW was inaugurated in June 21, 2013 and commercial operations started on January 4, 2014.

Investment in the project, including power transmission and gas supply, amounts to Rs 10,000 crore.

Assam will get 240MW, Tripura 196MW, Meghalaya 79MW and Manipur 42MW. Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram are the other beneficiaries.

The OTPC Palatana Power Project Company also has the option of merchant sale of 98MW. There is also an option to sell to Bangladesh once the clearance comes from the Centre. Though of course, earlier talking to TIWN, ONGC Asset Manager V.P. Mahawar said that a transmission line has to be set up in between the routes of Tripura Palatana and Bangladesh for the power transmission. On the other, Bangladesh had extended its helping hand in bringing the heavy machineries to Palatana OTPC site for the installation of the turbines, said Mahawar.

A transmission system is also being set up between Palatana and Bongaigaon in Assam covering a distance of 660km to facilitate evacuation of power from the generation site. While the distance of 504km on the Palatania side is already covered. And according to the sources, the company is planning to cover the remaining 156km by January.

However, the company had planned a 726MW project at Palatana by sourcing gas from ONGC, which has significant reserves in Tripura.