AGARTALA, May 6 (TIWN): The Palatana Unit-II is likely to be commercially commissioned by end of September after conducting necessary tests, according to highly places sources.
The new date for Unit-II has been finalized at a high level meeting held in Delhi’s Shram Sakti Bhavan today. Secretary of Power Ministry PK Sinha presided over the all-important meeting.
The ONGC would be able to supply gas for the Unit-II by end of July this year as the agencies have been asked to complete the works by mid July or end July, VP Mahawar, the Asset Manager of ONGC, Tripura Asset told in the meeting.

 OTPC Director Sashi Shankar and OTPC’s Manager Director S K Dube who were present in the meeting, said that if the ONGC ensures supply of gas by end of July, it (OTPC) would take four to six weeks for necessary test before commission the Unit-II.

In the meeting, the problems related to evacuation of power from Palatana to the national grid also came up for discussion.

The secretary asked his deputy to take all possible steps so that all hurdles in erecting transmission line upto Bongaigoan could be done at the earliest. Due to various reasons, setting up of four towers could not be taken up till the date hindering the erection of transmission line from Meghalaya to Bongaigoan.

Earlier, it was said that Palatana Unit-II would come up by July bring cheering among the states facing severe power shortage.

Besides, the status of ill-fated Manarchak power plant also came up for review. In the meeting, the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of NEEPCO claimed the plant was ready long time back but could not be commissioned due to gas supply.

Mahawar, however, rubbished the claim of NEEPCO saying that the turbines of Manarchak power plant are yet to ready for power generation. To substantiate the ONGC’s claim, Mahawar also placed some photographs showing works are still going on at Palatana site. In the meeting, the ONGC Asset Manager also offered joint inspection to review the status of Manarchak project but not yet decided on it.