Agartala, May 20 (TIWN / IANS): State-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC), which operates a 726 MW gas-based combined-cycle power plant in Tripura, posted a record profit of 906 per cent in 2016-17 compared to the previous fiscal, it was announced here on Saturday.

"The OTPC registered a net profit after tax of Rs 130.45 crore during 2016-17, up by 906 per cent as compared to Rs 12.96 crore in the previous year," an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) release said.

"During its board meeting held earlier this week in New Delhi, OTPC has declared maiden dividend of 7.5 per cent of paid-up equity share capital of Rs 1120 crore amounting to Rs 84 crore for 2016-17 fiscal."

"The dividend was declared, within two years of commencement of full operation of its power project. With this, OTPC becomes the first dividend paying stand-alone gas based power generation Company in the Country," ONGC said.

The OTPC, a joint venture company of ONGC, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd, IDFC bank and Tripura government, set up the 726 MW project at Palatana in southern Tripura in June 2013.

The release said OTPC achieved highest ever gross generation of 4170 million units electricity during FY 2016-17 which surpasses previous annual best of 3481 million units during FY 2015-16.

"OTPC is registered as a CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) project and 1.7 million Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) certificates have been issued by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)."

The OTPC's combined cycle power plant, which is the largest in northeastern region of the country, fulfilling around 35 per cent power requirement of seven northeastern states.

The Rs 10,000 crore Palatana power plant, which supplies 100 MW power to Bangladesh, is a hallmark of the cooperation between New Delhi and Dhaka, which ensured the smooth passage of heavy project equipment and turbines to Palatana in southern Tripura (65 km south of Agartala) through Bangladesh territory by road and waterways from Haldia port in West Bengal.