First unit of 726 MW ONGC Tripura power project inaugurated

The first unit of 726 MW gas-based Tripura power project was today inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee. With this inauguration, the Rs. 3,400 crore project, developed by ONGC Tripura Power Corporation Ltd (OTPC) and the biggest ever thermal power project of the region, would start its commercial production.

Power from the project would feed power starved North-Eastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. A 400 KV transmission line is under construction to evacuate power from Palatana project and connect to the North-Eastern grid at Bongaigaon in Assam. The transmission line has already been completed up to Byrnihat in Meghalaya. The 400 KV transmission line would pass through three states namely Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam and the total length of the transmission line would be around 650 km.

Mukherjee said that the power project was not only the largest investment in North-East but it was also the largest project in the world registered under the Clean Development Mechanism of the UNFCC. "It would earn India over a million of carbon credits," said the President.

Mukherjee thanked the president, prime minister and government of Bangladesh "for their support in making the project possible". The project had initially faced challenges to ship over-dimensional consignments (ODCs) through several hilly terrains. However, with Bangladesh later grating .transit access, those ODCs were shipped through waterway via Bangladesh. The President called for increased cooperation between India and Bangladesh in power sector. He said it was a much awaited and proud moment for all stakeholders.

The project is a joint venture of ONGC, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), Energy Development Company Ltd. and Government of Tripura and is situated at Palatana in south Tripura.

The foundation stone of the project was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 29, 2005.