AGARTALA, Dec 28 � Clearing all doubts, the State-owned oil giant ONGC on Wednesday declared that the first unit of 726 MW Palatana power project would be commissioned by May next year.
Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of ONGC Sudhir Vasudeva who arrived here today visited the Palatana site and had a closed door meeting with heads of concerned agencies � OTPC and BHEL.
Talking to media, Vasudeva said that the first unit of the ambitious power plant would be fully commissioned by May next while the next phase will go on strem three months later.
When asked about the delay in setting up the Rs 3,950 crore project, the ONGC chief said that remoteness came on the way of raising the pace of works. �Palatana is located in a remote area of South Tripura district where transportation has emerged as a major problem in bringing in heavy equipments for the project. Besides, heavy showers washed away by-passes twice delaying transport of the Gas Turbines in scheduled time. Most importantly, the mammoth turbines came to Palatana through a foreign country�, he said.
Even after several obstacles, the engineers and other skilled labourers have been toiling hard to commission the first unit within the stipulated time, he said adding that all necessary works � erection of transmission line and laying of gas pipeline have also made good progress.
Vasudeva further indicated, the ONGC may increase the installed capacity in near future if gas is available. �We will try to increase the power generation capacity in future if natural gas is available. To increase the gas production, the ONGC has been doing its best in Tripura�, he said.
Vasudeva, later met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and briefed him about the latest position of the proposed power project. The ONGC chief was accompanied by Director (HR) S K Jamestin and OTPC Managing Director SK Dubey. It may be noted that the 726 MW power project was supposed to be operational by December this year.
