National Wildlife Board clears ONGC Trishna gas project

The state-owned ONGC Tripura Asset would soon start extracting natural gas from Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary in Belonia subdivision of Gomati district following National Wildlife Board's clearance of its proposal, a top official said Saturday.

We have discovered 10-12 gas bearing wells long back in Trishna Wildlife sanctuary. As the gas bearing zones are in the wildlife sanctuary, we needed permission from the National Wildlife Board.

The National Wildlife Board, following recommendations from the state Wildlife Board, has cleared the project on Thursday," Gautam Kumar Singha Roy, Asset Manager of ONGC Tripura Asset told reporters here.

He said that after the state Wildlife Board sanctioned the project on September 17, the state government had taken up the issue with National Wildlife Board.

He said ONGC has already began laying the pipeline and the entire process would be completed shortly.

The gas extracted from Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary would be transported to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) owned 100 MW gas-based thermal power project at Monarchak in Sonamura subdivision of Sipahijala district.

The official said that the ONGC Tripura Asset has completed the exploration target for 2018-19 three months ahead of schedule.

"Our exploration target of 19 wells was completed by December itself and six more wells would be explored in the remaining three months of the current financial year," Singha Roy said adding that ONGC has augmented 10 lakh standard cubic metres gas this year compared to the last year, which was a record.

Singha Roy said that 50 per cent geographical area of the state still remains to be explored and it would be a great achievement if gas is discovered in even 10 per cent area.

He said the Tripura unit of ONGC would provide Rs 25 crore to the state government for carrying out Swacch Bharat Abhiyan.