AGARTALA, February 22 (TIWN): The gas based thermal power plant situated at Monarchak under Sonamura sub division to come up with its initial generation of power soon, said Monarchak Project Head S R Biswas today. Besides, the Monarchak had faced a minor problem in the gas recently, while talking to TIWN ONGC Asset Manager V P Mahawar said that the ONGC has immediately replaced its filter in the gas pipeline with the new one to avoid disturbances in the gas. Mahawar told to TIWN that there was a minor pressure depression in the gas recently following which the ONGC has replaced its filter in the gas pipeline. Beside Monarchak Project Head S R Biswas said that within two to three days the Monarchak will start its gas turbine, and will conduct test run before the commercial generation of power from the gas based thermal power plant.

On the sideline of another issue regarding  5 MW solar power plant,  Biswas said that the Monarchak has already started generating 5 MW of power and the solar modules are running smoothly without any disturbances.

It may be recalled here that recently the ONGC has charged gas into the 10 km pipeline from Khedabari - Sonamura GCS, to its Gas Metering Terminal at NEEPCO – Monarchak. Mahawar earlier said the pipeline was hydro-tested for confirming integrity and nitrogen was purged successively as part of standard operational and safety procedure. The pipeline section includes 600 m pipeline laid below Gomati River using the technology of Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD).

Besides, it is mentionable here that the Northeast India's biggest and the first-of-its-kind 5MW capacity solar power plant in Tripura has begun commercial production from Monarchak under Sonamura sub division. The solar power plant was set up at a cost of Rs.40 crore. The entire power from the plant is being transmitted to the Tripura power grid now.