AGARTALA, March 6 (TIWN): Whereas state Tripura is suffering from acute power shortage, State Govt has decided to supply an additional 60 MW of electricity to Bangladesh, over the 100 MW of power the state is providing to that country. The 100 MW electricity being supplied to the neighbouring country since March 23, 2016, is in addition to the 500 MW Bangladesh is already receiving from West Bengal. "Bangladesh has sought 100 MW electricity from India to solve its power crisis in the eastern part of the country. India's Power Ministry wanted to know whether the Tripura government is ready to provide additional 100 MW of power to Bangladesh, said the Minister. "Following the queries of the central government, we have at once informed the Union Power Ministry that the Tripura government was ready to supply 100 MW more electricity to Bangladesh”, Dey said.

But what surprising matter is that state Tripura whose daily need is 272 MW is supplying 100 MW of power to Bangladesh and the lameduck Power Minister boosted by saying is ready to provide an additional  powers if the central government permits it to do so. whereas  state Tripura itself is running under heavy losses.

Before a month back, to hide the frustration of massive power failure Tripura Power Minister Manik Dey said, "‘Monarchak is totally failed project’.  Minister Manik Dey was talking about the status of Power Plants in Tripura. Whereas Tripura Govt yet to clear the unpaid bill to NEEPCO, Minister said, Monarchak Power Project, located at Sonamura is a totally failed project here in Tripura. “The plant which began in 2002, evenafter crossing of 14 yrs has failed to generate power and supply in Tripura, said Dey and he further depicted that power generation is day by day deteriorating in Tripura. Dey also claimed that the whole India is suffering from same problem. Although in Tripura the power purchasing cost is low, but in many other states it’s much high Dey added. Whereas India’s various plants are aimed with 65,185 MW power generation, due to various obstracles, total 30,070 MW production has been disrupted.

Moreover, Tripura Govt never took any initiative to resolve the dispute among ONGC and NEEPCO.
The state-owned North East Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), under the Union Power Ministry, commissioned the 101 MW capacity Monarchak project in western Tripura (just 10 km from the Bangladesh border).

The central government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has also commissioned its biggest 726 MW-capacity commercial power project in southern Tripura's Palatana, 60 km south of Agartala.