AGARTALA, July 22 (TIWN): Tripura is likely to get more powercuts in the days ahead. A highly placed source in the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) said that the state is currently suffering from major shortfall of power in the peak hours owing to which power-cuts might be increased soon to tackle the need with the limited availability.

Power Minister Manik Dey recently said that the state is facing uncertainty of power supplies. Shortfalls are spiking as high as 60 MW with average power requirement in peak hours rising to 250 MW. If the situation continued unabated, powercuts for 90 minutes on an average would be unavoidable, the Power Minister said.

In a much similar tune with the Power Minister, the CMD of TSECL said that Tripura is now experiencing average power-cuts of 1 hour every day in urban areas and 1.30 hours in rural areas. The power corporation has approached the office of Power Minister and Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to approve further rise in power-cuts, he said. The CMO hasn’t approved the proposal yet, the source said.

The TSECL CMD admitted in the sidelines of a programme in the presence of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar that the corporation had expected power situation of the state to be better after the advent of Palatana project. “Things haven’t got any better”, he said.

Asked about reason behind the sudden spiking need of power in the state, Power Minister Manik Dey said that presence of small and medium scale industries and rising use of electrical appliances in the households were main reasons behind the constant rise of power consumption. Living standards of people have risen; their use of modern appliances have come as a companion, he stated.