AGARTALA, Feb 22 (TIWN): Monarchak 101MW power plant, which is powered by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), will resume its power generation from next week as assured by NEEPCO high officials. Talking to TIWN correspondent on Sunday, NEEPCO GM SR Biswas said that the maintenance work is underway and soon by next week the plant will start power generation in full swing.It is to be mentioned here that Monarchak power plant has once again undergone complete shutdown from past once week due to some technical faults in the turbine, said official source.
Being a natural gas surplus state, the major share of the power requirement of Tripura is met through Gas based projects.Although ONGC was successful in supplying gas to Monarchak power plant and Monarchak was able to generate power fluently from gas turbine but the sudden report of technical faults has disrupted the power generation leading to power crisis.The power crisis here in state seems to be a never ending issue. Either, due to lack of maintenance work or lack of gas supply, power generation is continuously hit and the common people are the ultimate sufferer.

With reports of technical faults in the turbine power plant has stopped generation which was able to generate power in full swing at least from the gas turbine.

However, GM Biswas further said that maintenance work is underway; engineers are giving their best efforts to fix the faults. Further it is expected that the plant will start generation by next week.

The shutdown of Monarchak is a matter of concern for TSECL. TSECL cannot rely fully on Palatana, they should seriously think about alternate arrangement as Tripura is also willing to transmit 100 MW power to Bangladesh. The fluency in power generation of 101 MW gas-based thermal projects at Monarchak in Sipahijala district has become uncertain due to some technical faults in the turbines.

It’s to be mentioned that Ministers words and administrative words do not match at all while gathering information for Plants but the actual sufferer are the common people, who are yet to see Tripura as a “Load-Shedding-Free” state, as promised by Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The project’s foundation stone was laid in March 2002 by Suresh Prabhu, the then power minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the centre.

Presently all the Power Plants are suffering due to various reasons: whether it would be for maintenance work or insufficient gas supplies. On the other hand Tripura is suffering due to load-shedding, but CM Manik Sarkar kept on promising to supply 100 MW power to Bangladesh.