AGARTALA, Sept 4 (TIWN): Hardly a week had passed by that State Power Minister Manik Dey had expressed his displeasure over the role of state’s biggest power plant – Palatana OTPC plant being set up at Udaipur Palatana, the plant went for another shutdown recently resulting a load shedding across the state.

According to the highly placed official source, currently the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) managed to resume its gas supply to Monarchak power plant being set up at Sonnamura sub-division.

“ONGC is able to supply the gas to Monarchak only because currently one of the units of Palatana power plant is undergoing shutdown,” official told to TIWN on Thursday.

The official further informed that no further meeting was called with the ONGC authority regarding the regular gas supply. “The Monarchak plant is currently getting the gas from ONGC and both the units are on now.”

It is to be mentioned here that a week back Minister Manik Dey, “The government is not in a position to buy power from Monarchak with a cost of Rs. 4 per unit which is comparatively high.” However, as a result the plant is currently undergoing huge loss and at the mean time the project cost had also increased.

Besides, Minister also expressing displeasure over the irregular power generation of Palatana OTPC said, “We are still unaware that when the Plant goes for shutdown and when does it resume again.” Adding to that Dey clarified, “The plant often goes for shutdown resulting low power generation.”

“But, we have already asked the OTPC authority to maintain its regular power generation despite the fact that it needs to go for schedule shutdown,” Dey said earlier. Dey also said, “There is a huge scarcity of gas at Monarchak power plant following which the plant is incurring a hige loss at present.”

He said that when Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) pipes the gas to Palatana OTPC plant to get their both the unit run the scarcity comes up in Monarchak plant. “The ONGC was already asked to restore their gas supply and ensure sufficient gas to Monarchak,” Dey said.

Run by North East Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO), government undertaking gas based power plant at Monarchak at Tripura Sonamura Sub division is currently facing a loss with its power production as the government of Tripura run Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd. (TSECL) is reluctant to buy power from the plant due to high power cost as compared to other power plants in Tripura.